Episode description
As your business grows, you find you need to be in more than one place at a time, and lacking a time travel/teleportation device (and needing rest yourself anyway), the best solution is to bring on more hands. These might be employees, contractors, or volunteers, each of which is a bit of a different creature, so while the concepts we discuss here are relatively universal, one's approach might need to be massaged a bit.
NOTE - this is NOT legal advice. Consult your HR Professional or Employment attorney for legal advice. Your state and possibly county laws will vary, and you may need to comply with things we don't even know about.
Jennifer, Daniel, and Patricia all share tidbits they've learned over the years, as employees and as employers, that are designed to help other small business owners traverse an oft-encountered minefield: that of firing those working for them.
Nobody stays forever. Eventually, everybody goes lame, and needs excused. Some excuse themselves, others need removed for the good of the business. Our discussion came up with a bit of a framework, and a number of questions for you to answer for yourself.
Framework:
00:02:27 Termination: policies in place for behavior issues.
00:06:43 Record-keeping is crucial after an employee's lawsuit threat.
00:08:38 Your first time letting someone go.
00:11:56 Undoing damage, resolving issues, moving forward.
00:16:41 Consider brand reputation, hire right, fire faster, PIP helpful, teamwork important.
Questions for you to consider:
1. What are the potential consequences of not having policies and procedures in place when it comes to terminating an employee, contractor, or volunteer?
2. How can friendships in a small company affect the process of letting someone go? What challenges may arise?
3. Do you think the expectations for conduct and behavior should be the same for employees, contractors, volunteers, and board members? Why or why not?
4. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to let someone go? How did you handle it, and what were the outcomes?
5. How important is it to maintain training records and documentation? Can you share any examples of situations where having these records saved your organization?
6. What are some legal requirements for having policies and documentation in place for employee separations? Why is it important to adhere to these requirements?
7. How can having clear policies and procedures help protect your organization in the event of a legal dispute with a terminated employee, contractor, or volunteer?
8. Have you ever had to deal with the challenge of separating from a friend or someone you had a personal relationship within a professional setting? How did you handle it, and what lessons did you learn?
9. Do you think the approach to termination should be different for nonprofit organizations that rely on volunteers compared to for-profit businesses? Why or why not?
10. How can organizations effectively communicate expectations and behavior standards to their employees, contractors, volunteers, and board members to minimize the need for separation?
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