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The least pleasant part of being a supervisor or manager is terminating an employee. No matter how horrendous that employee has been, looking someone in the face and saying, “We’re terminating your employment,” is just plain difficult. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve had to do it, either. When you’re terminating someone’s employment, you are making a major change in his life, something he probably doesn’t want and something that may have an effect on his family as well as himself.

But like it or not, there are times when termination is the only choice. An employee who seemed to be full of potential decides to “retire” at work and doesn’t meet your expectations. An employee whose job requires that he be present during specified hours, strolls in whenever he pleases, leaves when he feels like it, and is gone more than he’s at work. There are thousands of scenarios, but the end result is the same; you need to move this person out of your workplace.

Communicate With Your Employee As Soon As You Identify A Problem

When I worked as a Corporate Employee Relations Manager in a Fortune 100 company, I frequently received phone calls from supervisors with employees who were not meeting expectations. Interviewing the supervisors, I’d ask how long the performance had been deficient. “Oh, about six months, maybe a little longer,” was not an unusual response. Six months? When I questioned the supervisors a little more, they admitted they were reluctant to confront the employees. Some wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. They thought the employees just needed some time to settle in. Some supervisors thought things would just get better if they left the employees alone. (This will not happen!)

As soon as you see an employee struggling, even if the employee does not acknowledge or even understand he’s struggling, it’s important to sit down, in private, and discuss your observations. Let the employee know what you expect from him and what you’ve actually observed him doing. Explain how he can meet your expectations. Schedule follow-up coaching and counseling sessions. Let the employee know that you’re in his corner; you want him to succeed. Encourage him to ask questions. Start every coaching and counseling session with positive feedback; then discuss areas for improvement; and end the session with positive reinforcement.

Put Job Deficiencies in Writing

If an employee is not meeting expectations, whether by way of job performance or attendance or conduct, put those deficiencies in writing. A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is an excellent tool to communicate what is expected, what standards are not being met, steps to be taken immediately, and consequences for not meeting those expectations. I drafted PIPs for supervisors in the form of a memo to be signed by the supervisor, the employee (if he wanted to sign it - it wasn’t required), and countersigned by me. The employee received a copy whether or not he signed the PIP. The reason I signed it was that in a large company we wanted to make certain we were consistent across the board. i.e., We wanted to make certain that we treated employees in all states in the same manner.

Employees were given a reasonable period of time in which to make improvements. Often 30 days is sufficient time in which to expect a change in performance, attendance or conduct. If there is a serious deterioration, you need not wait until the end of that time period to take the next step. And if the deficiencies are only partially cured at the end of the time period, you can extend the PIP to make certain the employee does not backslide.

Make It Clear At the Outset of Employment, What Acts Constitute Grounds For Immediate Termination

There has been a lot of talk about progressive discipline. When an employee is modestly deficient in his performance or his attendance is a little less than stellar, progressive discipline may be appropriate. But there are times when the only appropriate response is immediate termination. What constitutes grounds for immediate termination may vary but here are a few that come to mind:

* Possession of firearms or knives (other than pocket knives) on company property (you may want to include company parking lots in the definition of company property).

* Physical assault on another employee or visitor on company property

* Possession and/or sale of controlled substances without a valid prescription on company property

* Threats of violence made against another employee or visitor on company property

* Sexual harassment (Immediate termination would generally be for actual sexual assault or inappropriate touching. A PIP might be issued to an employee for making an inappropriate remark.)

* Viewing child pornography on company computers or other equipment.

* Making threats against another employee based on his race, religion, national origin, etc. (Violations of state laws and Title VII are to be taken very seriously).

*Committing a felony that disqualifies an employee from working for the company. (I worked for a financial services company and financial service companies cannot hire or retain employees who have been convicted (as opposed to just being “arrested”) for crimes involving robbery, theft, or embezzlement.) Your human resources department can advise you if there are restrictions of this type that apply to your company.

The Termination Process

Your employee has been coached and counseled. You’ve given him a PIP and the improvement, if any, was temporary. You see no other avenue left but termination. Before you start the process, it’s always a good idea to get a second opinion. In the company where I worked, my opinion and my signature were required before the termination could take place. This policy was instituted by the Senior Vice President of Human Resouces to ensure that we didn’t have someone terminated in California, while an employee in Georgia only received a PIP for the same reasons.

Once the paperwork has been signed, make certain you have the employee’s final check ready to hand to him at the termination. In some states, like California, this is mandatory. Even if you are not required to do so, it is a good idea to give the employee his money before he leaves. It goes a long way to reducing his anxiety about his future and makes the termination at least slightly more palatable.

Does it make a difference what day you choose to do a termination? Some people like to wait to the end of the week. My preference was to either do the termination on a Monday or at the very latest, on Thursday morning. If an employee is terminated on a Friday, all he can do is sit around all weekend thinking about how he was fired. I know we call it “termination” but the word that goes off in our heads is “fired”. If an employee is prone to any sort of retaliation or depression, a Friday termination can make things worse. On the other hand, if an employee is terminated at the beginning of the week, he has a reason to get up the next day and apply for unemployment and start looking for a new job.

The termination should take place in a private room. I generally used a conference room near an entrance or exit to the building. If your building is not configured this way, find some private room in which to conduct the termination. It’s humiliating enough to lose your job without the whole world hearing and watching you. A member of human resources or another manager should be in the room with you as a witness.

The supervisor should remind the employee that they have discussed his deficiencies over a period of time and that things have not gotten better. The supervisor should then inform the employee, “We have decided to terminate your employment.” Use the word “we” rather than “I”; it’s less personal and less confrontational. Don’t let the employee argue about this. Explain that the decision has already been made and you’re not going to debate the decision. Let the employee know that you will not discuss his termination with anyone and that you respect his privacy.

The supervisor should arrange to have someone (either an assistant manager or someone from human resources) retrieve from the employee’s desk, whatever he needs to take with him immediately. If the employee is a woman, she will want her purse. It is not a good idea to let the employee return to his desk. I have witnessed too many incidents where the supervisor let the employee collect his own things.

One supervisor told me there was nothing to worry about because the employee would act in a professional manner. Five minutes later, I was called to the work area because the employee was screaming at the top of her lungs about how unfair we were; how she had been fired for no reason and how she was going to sue us all. The disruption to the workplace was devastating, even though in this particular case, most of the other employees were happy to see this woman leave.

Let the employee know that you will pack up his belongings and have them shipped to the employee’s address. Confirm the address to which the employee wants his belongings sent. When the belongings are packed up, have one person do the packing and another writing an inventory. The last thing you need is for a former employee to accuse you of stealing a Rollex he left in a drawer. You may laugh but it has been known to happen.

After the employee has been given his final check and a copy of his termination paperwork, ask him for his badge or any other company property he may have with him (company pager, company cell phone, company credit card). Escort the employee out of the building. Immediately after the now-former employee leaves, make certain security knows that this person is no longer employed by the company. If employees swipe badges to access company parking lots or buildings, make certain facilities or security disables the employee’s badge. Company credit cards should be cancelled immediately, as should cell phone and pager numbers.

Other employees will undoubtedly ask what happened. It is not unusual for a terminated employee to call some of his former coworkers and ask what was said about him. Here is the appropriate response: “John Doe is no longer with the company.” If they ask why, “I do not discuss other employees.” If you hear employees gossiping about the terminated employee, it’s probably a good idea to encourage them to go back to work, reminding them that they would not want someone to discuss them behind their back.

One last caveat: If for any reason you believe before or after the termination, you believe the employee may retaliate in any way, don’t keep it a secret. Tell your own supervisor and human resources. There were many times when I had security outside the door while I participated in terminations and I never felt as if I were overreacting.

When I worked for The Boeing Company, a security guard gave me some very sage advice. Whenever I had to participate in a termination, he checked out the room where the termination would take place. The first time I saw him remove a stapler from the desk, I just laughed. I stopped laughing when he asked, “What would you do if he picked this up and hit you in the head?” Not being a person prone to violence, this had never occurred to me. “That,” he said, “is why I’m in security; to make certain it does occur to you.”

While I was never physically threatened or assaulted, there were cases where the immediate supervisor and I thought that possibility existed. All you have to do is watch the evening news to hear about workplace violence. If you have treated an employee with courtesy and respect, up to and including his termination, you will have gone a long way to ensuring the safety and security of the entire workplace.

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On the aisles of the expo hall at IHRIM ‘08 in Orlando last month were no less than a dozen vendors with an onboarding product. It didn’t take much more than three booth stops to come to the conclusion that there are as many definitions of onboarding as there are vendors selling onboarding products. For that matter, there are additional definitions for each consulting firm and HR industry analyst that writes on the topic of onboarding. So what, then, is onboarding? Can a universal definition of onboarding be written?

Ask a vendor with an onboarding product what onboarding is, and their answer is likely to be skewed in the direction of the strengths of their own product. Instead, ask an HR professional what onboarding is and they will universally define onboarding simply as moving a candidate for a role into that role. The candidate can be new to the organization, or may already be participating in the organization as an employee, contractor, partner, or in any number of peripheral capacities. The role the candidate is moving into may be any working relationship with the organization, most typically an employment role, but the role may also be an expansion of duty or responsibility, either permanent or temporary.

Onboarding technology vendors offer products that address a myriad of aspects of the above definition, all claiming their approach is the most important and therefore the only approach that matters. It’s not surprising, then, that all of the vendors with onboarding products at IHRIM ‘08 showed off widely varying approaches to onboarding. A closer look at each of the vendors and their products reveals that there are two basic approaches to onboarding: transactional onboarding, and acculturation.

Transactional onboarding focuses on automating the data transactions and processes related to moving the candidate into their new role. Data transactions generally include the collection of data from the candidate and the generation of forms, such as tax and benefits forms, as well as employment policy acknowledgement forms. Transactions may also include the data integrations between other systems, such as talent acquisition and HRMS, or between the organization and their third party partners such as background testing vendors. Basically, transactional onboarding seeks to automate and perfect processes associated with onboarding, processes that are defined through a combination of the organization’s business policy, industry best and accepted practices, and by regulatory bodies.

Acculturation focuses on making the process of moving the candidate into their new role as quick and as efficient as possible. Acculturation is about making sure the employee understands their new role and organization and helping them achieve productivity quickly. Acculturation is about making the candidate’s transition as smooth and painless as possible. If it seems that acculturation is the right-brain, artistic-thinking side of the onboarding persona to transactional onboarding’s left-brain logical-thinking side of the onboarding persona, this is for good reason:. there are many ways to smooth a candidate’s onboarding transition, while there is only one way to maintain compliance on an I9 form.

Acculturating a candidate (known also as socializing a candidate, or more big-brotherly as indoctrinating a candidate, a term more often heard in Europe) can be achieved in many different ways. Some vendors implement acculturation in the form of a new employee portal, where candidates can access information of interest to newbies, though many HR managers might question the need for another portal in addition to the ESS and company intranet. Other vendors implement acculturation through benefits modeling (helping the candidate wade through their complex benefits package options), and yet other vendors provide structured training plans (not surprisingly integrated with those vendor’s learning management systems).

Obviously the two approaches-transactional onboarding and acculturation-are not mutually exclusive. Some organizations will benefit more from one approach than the other, while many will benefit from both approaches. With the best-of-breed approach as prevalent as it is in HR, it is quite conceivable that organizations may elect to implement more than one onboarding vendor to address different requirements, which are typically driven by specific organizational goals or objectives. These objectives are often influenced, or completely defined, by the company’s strategic objectives, such as reducing costs, quickening effectiveness, compliance, or even by corporate green initiatives.

Reducing costs in onboarding is most often approached from the transactional onboarding side of the fence. Eliminating paper processes reduces not only paper, printing, and duplication costs (supporting an organization’s green initiatives), but also reduces costs associated with processing the paper, such as shipping, long term storage, and accessing the forms (for efficiency in the office, and for audits). Automating processes generally entails integrations between systems: if the data is collected in electronic form to begin with, it makes sense to eliminate data entry (keying) labor in favor of integrations with the organization’s other systems.

Quickening effectiveness is obviously approached more from an acculturation perspective, but may also entail a technology known as requisitioning, which is software that allows the organization’s HR or management staff to request items or material needed by the candidate to perform the responsibilities of their new role. For example, a manager may need to requisition a cubicle, desk, chair, and computer for their new employee. While this is a relatively common technology associated with onboarding, it’s interesting to note that requisitioning can be thought of as an employee life cycle process, even starting before the candidate has been identified and the offer extended. Wouldn’t it be useful for a manager to request a desk and cubicle for an employee as soon as their open position has been created? Then requisition the employee’s badge and network access as they are onboarding? Then requisition a replacement computer 3 years after they’ve been employed? While most vendors offer requisitioning as part of the onboarding process, far fewer offer it as a lifecycle process.

Human resources processes are rife with regulatory compliance issues, which are more typically addressed with transactional onboarding than with acculturation. From taxes to employment verification, and from enforcing the organization’s internal business policy to addressing industry best practices, achieving and maintaining compliance is almost universally a goal of an onboarding effort. For good reason: non-compliance can be expensive, particularly when compounded by risk factors and business dynamics such as high turnover and alien labor. Organizations who must contend with these business conditions should consider an onboarding system to help mitigate their risk.

Organizations considering an onboarding effort should focus on establishing and prioritizing their objectives. Those with business dynamics such as high turnover (such as hospitality and fast food companies) and utilization of alien labor (construction companies) are probably better served by a transactional onboarding system. Organizations with highly professional workforces that are difficult (and expensive) to recruit and retain might be better served with an acculturation-based system, though should be forewarned that retention processes continue long after the onboarding process ends.

Organizations considering an onboarding strategy should also focus on leveraging their previous technology investments, as onboarding is rarely a standalone system. How does the vendor provide for system integration? Have they embraced standards like HR-XML? Does their approach, such as best-of-breed versus comprehensive HR suite, best match the organization’s needs? Does the vendor have off-the-shelf integrations relevant to the organization? Does the vendor’s application require a completely new user portal, or does it run in the organization’s existing ESS, HR portal, or Intranet?

And finally, organizations evaluating onboarding technologies should focus on the flexibility of their solution options. While transactional onboarding must naturally adhere to regulatory and industry best practices, it should also be flexible enough to accommodate the organization’s own business policy and procedures, both now and in the future (because it’s certain to change). When considering an acculturation technology, does the vendor’s platform meet the organization’s requirements-including not only business policy and culture, but also HRIS infrastructure such as ATS, HRMS, and employee communications portals-or do they prescribe their technology as what the organization should adopt as best practice?

A sensible approach to defining an onboarding initiative starts with the organization identifying their objectives, prioritizing their goals, and carefully evaluating the technology options. Such an approach will inevitably lead to a successful onboarding implementation.

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In today’s workplace a high performance culture requires high maintenance and people issues are at the top of most CEO’s to-do lists. But what does it take to build a utopia?

A large number of my friends and peers look puzzled when I volunteer that I love my job. I don’t just look forward to returning to work on Monday mornings, it’s more than that. I am inspired by the people, committed to the organisation and connected to my role; I am an engaged employee. In HR speak I apply discretionary effort, and when this happens everyone’s happy. Happy people equal happy profits - and in a nutshell that’s what they teach you at business school now.

The same friends then go into total shock when they find out that I turned down another role paying nearly $20k a year more for the one I have now. So what did my current employer do to woo me? How did their employer brand get me?

Employee engagement, what just a few years ago was conference lingo and a phrase bandied around by hip CEOs has fast become the holy grail of organisational success. What use is are a strategy and a plan without the right group of motivated people to get you there?

Engaged employees mean high performance. In an age where perception is reality; engaged employees are around three times more likely to believe that they can have a positive impact on product quality, customer service and costs. The emotional bonds that an engaged workforce develops means ‘above and beyond’, the discretionary effort the HR boffins refer to, becominges part and parcel of every working day. The pay-offs are mutual; work becomes pleasurable, more productive and more profitable.

In turn our willingness to recommend our employer as a place company to do business with regardless of what it sells or does, or as a great place to work sky-rockets.

What conditions do we need to become and remain engaged?

Firstly, is a flexible and friendly environment that caters for your demographic. This might mean work from home for those that prefer peace and quiet for a couple of days a week or have childcare commitments, hours to suit (within the context of the businesses’ needs of course) and an at-work environment with break-out areas and even a Wii or PSP if you’re high on the GenY count.

Second is the right resources to get the job the done; not everyone wants the same desk, chair, or PC, so where budgets and health and safety will allow, letting your people create their home away from home, and provide opportunities for everyone to give feedback as to what’s stopping them at work. Big problems needn’t always cost big bucks. I’m reminded of the story where management consultants were drafted into a logistics firm to work out why so many deliveries were made late or going to the wrong address. They discovered that the printer printing running off the delivery notes wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate the multi-layer delivery notes sheets and the driver’s copy was barely legible, so i. It pays to talk to your people.

Third is inspiring leadership and individual autonomy - the two can and should go hand in hand. Empowered people inspired by the organisation’s vision embodied by the CEO and leadership team create their own high performance culture.

Fourth is a fair financial package; you don’t have to be the best payer on the block in the same way that your product doesn’t have to be the cheapest. We’ll happily pay more for a pleasurable brand experience at the shops and will happily earn less for a pleasurable work experience.

In the war for talent ; anything goes to attract and retain great people. Google now lets its workforce spend 20% of their time doing anything they want - which has in turn led to the development of projects like AdSense and Google News. St George offers employees the opportunity to work for four years and take year five off with an income.

Non-monetary benefits including evermore innovative reward and recognition programs are an increasingly important part of an employer’s armoury to get the right people into the right seats and keep them there. There is also a growing bank of evidence to show that non-cash incentive programs improve performance more effectively. John Anderson, CEO of Gorman’s Business Interiors in Detroit, created Gormanopoly, a monopoly like game that incentivized just about everything and awarded points to teams; at the end of the first year all three teams had enough points to send every member of staff and a guest on a Carribean cruise costing over $32,000USD. “Not only was it good for the organisation, it got us good PR without a lot of promotion, customers got engaged in it and learned about our culture, and it was a great recruiting tool too,” reports Anderson. A recent study by the University of Chicago reported increases in productivity of over 38% against cash based incentive programs mediocre 14.6%.

What keeps me in my seat? It’s culture more than anything else.

Getting the best return on investment from your employer brand budget is not an easy task and personalising rewards and recognition is even harder.

Investing in culture is achievable by investing in relationships. Shared experiences produce relationships, they generate conversations, create memories and build emotional bonds; t, they are the currency of making dreams come true.

An employer that makes dreams come true…..we might not all become millionaires but a few hundred dollars on an experience of a lifetime is definitely one more good reason to stay.

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Self esteem is a sense of worth, not only in inner confidence and self-respect, but also outwardly in the actions one takes towards contributing to the Bottom Line.

Employee recognition is ranked the number one motivating factor when it comes to employee motivation in the workplace. If you want to maintain motivated employees, and encourage others to do better, recognizing them will help build their self esteem, while maintaining a loyal and motivated employee.

You may find it hard to believe, but recognition is the most powerful employee motivator of all because it builds one’s self-esteem. Research has shown that there is a stronger need in society today for recognition (building of one’s self-esteem) than there is for sex and money. Now, that says something about building self esteem and employee motivation.

Why is building self-esteem through recognition so important?

When someone gives you a compliment or recognizes you for doing something, how do you feel? Imagine, for a moment, being complimented by all your family, friends, staff and customers all day, every day. What would it do to your self-esteem, your self confidence and your self respect, and ultimately your self-worth - the bottom line?

Building self-esteem through recognition is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement of actions gets those actions repeated. Recognition and praise reinforces our beliefs about ourselves and helps make us think we are better than we thought we were. That is how to build employee self-esteem.

Employee motivation is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcements is what builds our self-esteem. Our self-esteem is the way we see and feel about ourselves either internally, through our own beliefs, or externally through what we accept as the beliefs of others.

If we feel good about ourselves and we believe others feel good about us, we perform better than we would when we see the opposite side of the coin. Employee self esteem starts from external recognition and when accepted as being sincere it builds self esteem from within, which then translates into external actions leading to bottom line results.

People perform in a manner that is consistent with how they see themselves conceptually. So, the key is to help people build their self-esteem. That is the foundation of employee retention motivation and loyalty.

Unlike money which is an external motivator and never lasting, ones self- esteem is internal, and internal motivation is everlasting. In order to build a healthy self-esteem one needs recognition and praise, both from one’s self and from others.

You can help build someone’s self-esteem and self-motivation through recognition, but also through advancement and responsibility where that person can obtain a sense of achievement and personal growth.

The problem is that in today’s society we are deprived of positive feedback. Compliments, recognition and praise are not part of our day-to-day culture. For some reason, many people find it difficult to give compliments, recognition and praise. This does nothing for one’s self esteem.

My assumption is that it is hard to give something you don’t have to give. How can you give someone else a compliment if you can’t compliment yourself first? This goes back to our own self esteem. We must first feel good about ourselves, and tell ourselves that, before we can feel good about somebody else, and tell them that. It’s a vicious circle, but it all starts within each of us. How do you feel about your own self worth - your self-esteem?

Another problem is, we live in a society that has influenced us more to look for the things people do wrong, instead of the things they do right. How do you think it impacts someone’s self esteem if they are always recognized for the things they do wrong? Can you see them looking for the good in others and praising them accordingly? More likely they will find something to criticize in others.

We, as society, are to blame for this sort of behavior. It is up to each of us to change our self esteem from the inside - out.

These same influences have had an impact in our self-talk too. We tend to criticize ourselves for the things we do wrong. But how often do we praise ourselves for the things we do right?

Let’s tap ourselves on the back for the good that we do. The more we do it to ourselves, the more our self esteem grows and the more our self esteem grows, the more confident we feel, which in turn helps us to give more confidence and praise to others. Building our own self esteem allows us to then give growth to the self esteem of others.

You are the leader and you must set the example by demonstrating the appropriate behavior. The appropriate behavior that we are talking about here is recognition and praise to yourself first and then to your employees.

The bottom line is, for you as a leader, to build employee self esteem.

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Does your organization struggle with employee turnover and absenteeism? Is your company wasting time and money on bad hiring decisions? This article is designed to provide you with some useful tips for hiring reliable people. Specific job requirements may vary; however, the following information includes helpful and important guidelines from which every organization can benefit.

Employee turnover and absenteeism is inevitable. But when these things become excessive they can quickly put a business into the red. The cost associated with employee turnover and absenteeism is easy to overlook or ignore because they often go unrealized. Employee turnover and absenteeism have obvious costs that you can track, but the actual costs take a greater toll.

Are you frustrated by the costs associated with employee turnover and absenteeism?

A fundamental issue that managers need to understand in regards to employee turnover and absenteeism is the connection between the two. Extreme cases of employee absenteeism can sometimes be an early predictor of who is likely to leave the organization, resulting in employee turnover.

Let’s take a look at each issue, how they can affect your organization and how you can reduce their instances to save your company time, money and resources.

Employee Turnover

Dissatisfied people change jobs at an alarming rate. U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics report that “job hoppers make up 39% of the work force.” Many new employees do not become fully productive until they’ve been oriented, properly trained and gain experience in the company - a process that usually takes several months. The time, effort and money invested in a new employee are lost when they walk out the door and leave their job.

Costs related to employee turnover can reach 150% of annual compensation for employees and 200% to 250% of annual compensation for managerial and sales positions. A mid-sized company of 1,000 employees with an annual turnover of 10% stands to experience $7.5 million in related costs!

Employee Absenteeism

Organizations with high employee absenteeism and reliability issues cannot function efficiently. The expense of employee absence, along with last minute no-shows, is a big financial burden for businesses.

So what counts as an absence? An absence refers to time an employee is not on the job during scheduled working hours, except the leave has been granted (holiday, vacation time etc.). On average, a day of absence can cost an organization $610 per employee. The average annual costs associated with employee absenteeism can range from an estimated $60,000 for small employers to over $1 million dollars for large companies.

Ask yourself the following questions:

- Would you like to know in advance if a job candidate is going to have the kind of work ethic and reliability you’ve come to expect?

- Would you like to be able to predict issues with substance abuse and employee theft in advance of hiring someone?

- Would you like to know if the candidate is going to be a good fit for the job and your company?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any one of these questions, we can help. Download the rest of this guide on our site listed below.

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In the current economic climate, many companies may need to decrease personnel to cut costs or may take the opportunity to prune under-performing employees. Firing employees can be one of the most difficult and stressful functions of a manager. Aside from the emotional component, there are a number of legal considerations that must be considered. Proper planning for the termination can reduce the employer’s risks of a discrimination suit and lowering morale for remaining employees. A combination of preparation and documentation are the keys to a successful termination. This is not the time to skimp on legal counsel.

Virginia is an “at-will” employment state, which means that unless there is an employment contract that has other provisions, an employee can be fired at the will of the employer (at any time, for any legal, non-discriminatory reason). But even in an at-will state, firing employees without reason, and without having substantial documentation of that reason in their personnel file, is asking for trouble.

Terminating an employee should be the last resort. Having well-written job descriptions, good interviewing and hiring procedures, providing meaningful coaching and feedback to employees during employment and having routine performance evaluations can help prevent the need to terminate employees.

Before deciding to terminate, it is imperative to review an employee’s performance and personnel file. Compare the employee’s performance to the job description. Review any performance appraisals, warnings or other correspondence with the employee that is in the file. Review the company’s disciplinary procedures and termination policy and procedures. If appropriate, meet with the employee to review shortcomings and give the employee the opportunity to improve. If the employee’s performance reviews or personnel file do not contain evidence of poor performance, the company may have trouble defending itself from a post-employment discrimination suit. If the employee is in a protected class due to age, gender, race, etc., you are well-served to consult an employment attorney prior to the termination to lessen the chances or success of a post-employment discrimination suit.

Once the decision to terminate has been made, only the employee’s direct supervisor should be informed. News of firings should not be in the company grapevine ahead of time. Make sure to follow all formal policies and procedures of the company.

Employers used to fire employees late Friday afternoon. That standard has changed, with current practice to fire early in the week and early in the day, to avoid having employees stew all weekend and possibly become violent. Call the employee into an office, conference room or other private space. Have a witness present, such as the director of human resources (HR) or a manager. Witnesses should not be low-level employees. Have the personnel record in front of you. Tell the employee directly that he or she is being fired, and briefly give the reason. Tell the truth, but don’t give a lot of details or focus on them. It is important for the manager to be calm and as unemotional as possible. The employee will likely be angry or otherwise emotional. You may have to explain several times why the employee is being terminated. Try to limit discussions or debate with the employee, but answer the employee’s questions as succinctly as possible. Be prepared to say: ”I’m sorry, but my mind is made up.”

Explain what pay and benefits the employee is entitled to after termination. If the employee has money due, have a check ready at the meeting. Be aware of any specific laws or regulations that might pertain to terminations. In Virginia, for instance, it is unlawful to hold back the last paycheck for any reason (such as waiting for an employee to return her uniform). The best practice is to have the employee leave the premises immediately. This limits any spiteful damage the employee can cause, and it will be easier for the remaining staff. Prepare to change the employee’s passwords while he or she is in the meeting or just before you start the meeting. Collect all keys, credit cards, phones, computers, disks, manuals, documents, uniforms, tools, and other company materials. Have a box or two ready and escort the employee out.

In Virginia, no severance payments are required by law - severance payments are a matter of contract between the employee and the employer. Many employers choose to have terminated employees sign an agreement in which they get a severance payment in exchange for agreeing not to sue the company. These agreements are very difficult to draft, as they must integrate provisions of multiple federal discrimination statutes, which change frequently through legislation, agency regulation, or court interpretation. Have employment counsel draft the separation agreement and waiver ahead of time. Employees may have up to 21 days under federal statutes to consider the separation agreement.

After the meeting, review the terminated employee’s job description as well as policies on warnings and dismissals. A different job description may have made a better match of employee to job. The job may have changed over time and the original job description may no longer be accurate. The disciplinary system also may not have worked well. This type of review may eliminate the need to fire someone in the future.

Keep details about the employee’s termination confidential to maintain the employee’s privacy. It is important, however, to reassure your remaining employees that their jobs are not in jeopardy. Let them know that the employee has left the company. It’s also important to act quickly to get the terminated employee’s work reassigned and a job opening posted, if necessary.

If the employee files an unemployment claim, the company should consider whether it wishes to take the time and expense to fight the claim. Many human resources professionals advise not to routinely fight the unemployment claims. As attorneys, we consider that a business and culture decision, but will advise you to consult with counsel immediately upon receiving a notice from the employment commission, as the form is deceptively simple. Failure to take the first notices seriously could severely impact your options later.

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Employee motivation is not always the easiest of tasks, but it does pay off for you, your customers and the employee.

Recognition is ranked the number one motivating factor when it comes to employee motivation in the workplace. If you want to maintain motivated employees, and encourage others to do better, recognizing them publicly may save yourself the time and money of having to find and re-train new staff.

One of the best techniques to build and maintain employee motivation is to make it a practice to have an event or period end staff meeting, followed by a employee, & maybe spouse dinner, staff recognition awards and a closing party. This will build and maintain employee motivation though ongoing sincere recognition and deserving reward.

You may find it hard to believe, but recognition is the most powerful employee motivator of all. Research has shown that there is a stronger need in society today for recognition than there is for sex and money. Now, that says something about employee motivation.

Let’s think about it.

We could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. Sure they’ll be happy and thankful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period? Right; more money. External employee motivation is temporary - it is never lasting.

Money is an external employee motivator and it is never lasting. It’s an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. But if you have a bad period will they care? They’ll want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less.

A survey of thousands of workers around the world compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order:

1. High wages

2. Job security

3. Promotion in the organization

4. Good working conditions

5. Interesting work

6. Personal loyalty of supervisor

7. Tactful discipline

8. Full appreciation of work done

9. Help on personal problems

10. Feeling of being in on things

However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern;

1. Full appreciation of work done

2. Feeling of being in on things

3. Help on personal problems

4. Job security

5. High wages

6. Interesting work

7. Promotion in the organization

8. Personal Loyalty of supervisor

9. Good working conditions

10. Tactful discipline

Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors.

Do you think it would be any different in your business?

So it is fair to say that money, over and above wages, is not a main motivating factor, but full appreciation of work done is. This is recognition: the number one employee motivating factor in building and maintaining a motivated employee.

Why is it so important?

When someone gives you a compliment or recognizes you for doing something, how do you feel? Imagine, for a moment, being complimented by all your family, friends, staff and customers all day, every day.

What would it do to your self-esteem your self confidence and your self respect? Without it going to your head, how do you think you would perform? Would you be outstanding or what? Is this not the basis of employee motivation?

Employee motivation through recognition is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement of actions gets those actions repeated. Recognition and praise reinforces our beliefs about ourselves and helps make us think we are better than we thought we were. That is what employee motivation is all about.

Employee motivation is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcements is what builds our self-esteem. Our self-esteem is the way we see and feel about ourselves either internally, through our own beliefs, or externally through what we accept as the beliefs of others.

If we feel good about ourselves and we believe others feel good about us, we perform better than we would when we see the opposite side of the coin. Employee motivation starts from within.

People perform in a manner that is consistent with how they see themselves conceptually. So, the key is to help people build their self-esteem. That is the foundation of employee motivation.

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The purpose of an Employee Benefits Agreement is to set forth the agreement of two or more companies, or subsidiaries of the same company, regarding the allocation and assignment of their respective rights and obligations with respect to their current and former employees and with respect to benefits and compensation matters. It is usually an agreement that covers what will happen to a company’s employee benefit plan as a result of another agreement being executed. For instance, when two companies merge, an employee benefit agreement is often needed to address the new liabilities, interests, and obligations of the newly merged company in respect to the Employee Benefit Plan.

An Employee Benefit Agreement must address any change to any of the material aspects of an employee benefit plan. These could include changes to the employees defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, health and welfare plans, executive benefits, non-employee director benefits, pension plans, and employee retirement plans. In an employee benefit agreement executed in tandem with a merger agreement, the agreement can be broken down into the following articles:

1. Definitions - This article should define all the key terms used in the agreement. Key terms may include the companies’ abbreviated names as they will be used, how certain kinds of employees will be referred to, or key laws or statutes such as ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) that will be of particular importance throughout the agreement.

2. General Principles - This article must address assumption of liabilities, and must clearly identify who is assuming which liabilities in respect to the employee benefits plans. One company may be assuming liabilities of another, or a newly merged corporation may be assuming liabilities from two smaller ones. Whatever the case, the assumption of liabilities must be addressed in this General Principles article. As well, both companies’ new level of participation should be addressed.

3. Defined Benefit Plans - This article should address subjects such as the establishment of a mirror pension plan, any assumption of liabilities by the new pension plan, how the assets of the plans should be computed and allocated, and how the transfer of one company’s pension plan’s interests to a separate trust account will be effectuated.

4. Defined Contribution Plans - Any changes to the employees’ retirement savings plan or stock ownership plan must be addressed in this section. If the new company will be assuming liability for all savings and stock ownership plans, the agreement must recite that the new company will now be solely responsible, will cause the accounts to be transferred, and shall take such actions as may be needed to cause the assets associated with all transferred accounts to be transferred to a new trust for purposes of maintaining the savings and stock ownership accounts. If a new outside company will be taking over as administrator, this should be identified as well.

5. Health and Welfare Plans - This article should address the administration of the employee’s health and welfare plans, which includes insurance, workers’ compensation, and retirement plans as well. Will the new company assume the liabilities for these plans? Will an outside company be engaged to administer them? Will there be a change in any material terms of the plans? These questions must be answered in this section.

These are the most important areas to address when drafting an Employee Benefits Agreement. Essentially, these types of agreements address any changes made to an employee benefits plan as a result of another agreement being made. They must be drafted carefully to cover all aspects of a transfer or assumption of liabilities.

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When writing an evaluation for an employee of your business, there are certain aspects that often get forgotten over a years time. These aspects, when overlooked, can lead to diminished trust and faith in the parent company and business. It is important to focus on the entire 12 month span, as well as, some key factors when writing an evaluation for an employee of your business.

The first area of concern that is often overlooked when writing an evaluation for an employee of your business is the productivity level of the employee as a whole. The latest and most recent actions of the employee are the freshest in the mind of the supervisor, but, earlier actions and productivity levels when paired with different areas of expertise may lend a slightly better view of the employees overall performance. Every employee has a niche or area that they are best suited for. These areas need to be taken into heavy consideration when writing an evaluation for an employee of your business.

Time and attendance, a crucial point during evaluations should also encompass the entire year. Just because an employee has fallen ill and lost more time at work during the last two months of the employment year, does not mean the employee held a bad time and attendance record for the entire year. Looking back at older time and attendance reports, as well as, talking with the employees immediate supervisors and fellow workers will lend an all encompassing eye on the employee and their work practices.

Without a doubt, work practices make up a huge percentage of an employees evaluation. When writing an evaluation for an employee of your business, take into consideration not only how well an employee performed an assigned task, but the vigor with which the task was performed. Just because an employee may not be versed in a certain area does not mean they did not try their best to complete the task at hand. An evaluation is not supposed to be a marker of how great an employee works in all areas, but how well they are working with the company goals in mind as a whole.

When writing an evaluation for an employee of your business, taking a look back at the entire year as opposed to the most recent memories can mean the difference between an evaluation of mediocre levels and one that is above par. Employees deserve to be judged on 12 months worth of work and not just on the most vivid memories when an employer is writing an evaluation for an employee of their business.

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Communication is a part of every company, large or small. In large companies, the communication by formal procedures, but small businesses have the same experience is dictated communication processes informally. But the process and its effective use is the same for all companies. There are 5 key elements that will guide you and your staff better ways to exchange information and mutual understanding.

Send the reasons for decisions. Changingoccurs more frequently and the future is uncertain, people want the reasons for the decisions and changes that affect them know. "Why this?" "How does this affect me?"

Since the historic agreement between employer and employee to see not eroded employees to work for a living. In times of continuous employment, global management decisions were not so critical. But employees who face a lack of security,new expectations of their managers and owners. Employees expect clear and unambiguous information that can manage their career choices and plans.

Timeliness is crucial. Small businesses have the advantage of exchange of information very quickly, because their informal network. But the nature of this informal network is also fueled by rumors of the vine. The screw is a thriving small business when the change is approaching ruin and insecurity is at itshigher. Once you make a decision and share this information in a timely manner and taken to document the content of your choice. This reduces the strength of the screw and managers out there credibility. The cost of not communicating properly with the anger, dissatisfaction and loss of confidence.

Communicate constantly. The free flow of information a manager of small business can help in many ways. If the employees aware of the pressures and concerns about their employer and thisFreely shared information with them, may be the commitment of employees, a united front. Their commitment and investment will increase. Remember when employees of communication are not always fall back on less reliable sources of information. The ability to anticipate changes that will be less dramatic when the change actually occurs.

Close communication image "big" with an image of "small." It does not take place effectively until people understand the"Big Picture" and how it affects them and their jobs. The effects due to changes in the economy, competitors or the organization as a whole can have profound effects on your staff, and to connect to these changes in each individual workplace and employees.

What do not say how people feel about the news. People do not like being told how to feel the change. Vague statements like "You're just like the newRestructuring "and" That's will be really exciting, "usually only cause opposing reactions. These tests do not increase regulation of view, it is the atmosphere of openness and trust that you are trying to build." Who, what, where, when, how and why "is the best basis for communicating with employees. Be completed and honest information into action and allow employees to draw their own conclusions. If the proper foundation exists, and there is a degree of trust between the parties,Employees will lead to appropriate conclusions.

Change is the only thing we can, but the impact of this change must rely on your organization is something that can be modulated and controlled. Avoid the pitfalls of life and preservation of information in time and smooth as possible, you can change with time minimum disturbance. Employees are the greatest resource and keep their feelings and expectations in mind must be one of your priorities. Mutual respect is aCharacteristics of effective communication and may in the long run, go into a blessing rather than a burden.

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