Hard messages - letting employees go

By Terrie Lloyd

HR and business managers are confronted with having to execute orders from head office to pare down the workforce as a means of reducing cost. Because the reductions will be general in nature, the most common reaction of the local management is to deal with the problem in a general way as well – usually by sending emails or having mass meetings.

However, in my experience, mass communications of a negative nature almost never work, so I decided to consult with a professional in the HR and training field, Andrew Silberman of AMT Group. Andrew gave me the following series of tips on how to make firings and other hard messages more palatable, both to those staying and those leaving:

—Keep it legal: be familiar with your company’s rules of employment and relevant labor law.

—LISTEN. Everyone knows this is key, but how good are you at empathizing? Are you sure you’re giving the right level of feedback?

—Do NOT fire on a Friday! Early in the week gives people time to sort out issues, have support from colleagues, and to not fall into despair over the weekend.

—Similarly, earlier in the month is better, and after holidays, not before.

—Keep it private. As an example of what not to do, one company actually held an off-site seminar and gave everyone an envelope: some with blue notes (keeping their jobs) and some with yellow (losing their jobs). They then held a “farewell dinner” afterwards, at the same location, for those leaving. (I agree with Andrew that this was a tasteless, tactless, morale killer.)

—Except in extreme cases, there’s no reason to have security accompany the person off the premises. Avoid humiliating the person.

—Keep the meeting brief, and to the point, but allow your soon-to-be-former staff to vent, without you becoming defensive.

—Losing a job is shocking news for most people, unless you’ve done the performance monitoring right all along. Some people will immediately go into denial and not even realize they’re being terminated. You need to make it very clear that the decision has been made and is final.

—Be open from the start of the conversation about your own feelings. If true, something like, “This is going to be a difficult conversation…it is tough for me.”

—Avoid making any promises or phrases like, “I’m sure everything will work out all right.” Be prepared with what assistance your company is offering—counseling, interview coaching, or other outplacement help.

—Remember, the person you fire will have an impact beyond him/herself. They can cause others to leave, or lower morale of those who remain, or they can become still positive spokespeople for your firm.

—How they perceive you as a manager is how they will perceive your company.

Now, I have a couple more to add to this:

—Tokyo is a small town. If you don’t release your employee in a fair and transparent way, they could very well wind up getting their next job at your client’s company and will come back to “haunt” you.

—Unless there was something wrong with the person or their performance, I find that you can soften the redundancy by offering to write a letter of recommendation, to help the person in their future job search.

—Before a person has left, I only involve the managers and keep things confidential. However, after they have left, I make sure that the line manager sits down with their team to explain why the dismissal occurred and what was done to first try to remedy the causes for the eventual dismissal.

—It is cheaper than a lawsuit for unfair dismissal to give the retiring employee the full severance pay that is traditional for the company.

Terrie Lloyd writes a weekly newsletter for entrepreneurs and business people about business and political opportunities in Japan.

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10 Comments

jeancolmar at 07:44 PM JST - 7th March

Hard Messages--Overthrowing Capitalism

If may be a matter of time before the workers decide to take over the their places of employment and lock out the bosses.

Remember, be kind to the capitalists you have locked out. Remember now that you have socialism all their vast holdings are now public property and they are now your fellow workers. Do not humiliate them when they show up for work and have no practical skills to offer a society that produces things for use rather than profit. You must be patient and retrain them. You will also have to reeducate them to understand the virtues of the public ownership and workplace democracy. It is not nice to have former capitalists unemployed and eating out of recycling bins or suffering post traumatic stress because they no longer have their private jets.

Remember how kind these capitalists were when they fired you. Show them the same kindness in return when you overthrow them.

Remember
Peaceful_Man at 10:31 PM JST - 7th March

Great advice for the management who are on fat salaries and probably the cause of the financial crisis. JT, how about a colum about helping the workers who are getting canned! I'd say that kind of information is in demand more than Mr Lloyd's pearls of wisdom for the company's razor gang
rurika at 12:11 AM JST - 8th March

While I'd rather be "let go" in a tactful than a tactless manner, the end result is the same for me. I will be out of a job and I will have no loyalty for the company.

The ultimate insult to all staff is that even if the people who caused this crisis are fired, they go with a big fat bonus that is larger than the salary of a regular employee.

It is time to abolish the capitalist system which has created unprecented levels of wealth for a few and a spiral of misery for everybody else.
Mark_McCracken at 01:14 AM JST - 8th March

Good article from a knowledgeable author.

One question I'd like Terrie to answer would be how to cultivate the fence sitters - employees who really don't need the job,　either because they don't need the money, or have other employment opportunities. If a manager could separate out those people and encourage them to leave, it might reduce having to fire employees who desperately need the job.
sf2k at 12:49 PM JST - 8th March

welcome to the exciting world of Shafting 101, where Japan is also a world leader. Serioulsy though, when was the last time you read about how to can people as an instruction booklet?
70x4060d at 03:06 PM JST - 8th March

Is this article meant to mock us? 95% of readers are on the "wrong" end of this. The simple fact is that if you fire someone, you will have to stand in front of Saint Peter and justify that decision. He is probably not going to see things your way.
wibble at 10:22 PM JST - 8th March

Wow, some interesting view points here. Most are unbelievably wrong, but I think Mark hit on an interesting point.

So Person A does not deserve a job because they don't need the money as much? Even though they are possibly better at that job than person B, person B must have the job because they need the money more?

Well, sorry bud - life doesn't work that way. It hasn't in the past 60,000 years and I don't see it changing soon.

I can almost assure you that the person valued higher to the company will be kept, regardless of their 'need' for the salary.
shiuu at 04:34 PM JST - 12th March

My simple message, short and sweet, would be:

"Too bad you weren't better at your job."
ultradodgy at 03:56 PM JST - 13th March

Totally, totally disagree with not firing on a Friday and completely disagree with "not before a holiday". In this market, people need to know early and clearly that they are losing their job, not after they return from a pricey vacation.
ultradodgy at 04:01 PM JST - 13th March

I should also add, though, that I pretty much agreed with the rest of the article and thought it a good, well written summary of the current issues aftecting the ahem management class (and judging by the rest of the posts here it seems like we're the minority on JT.)

The reality is that businesses grow and shrink; employees are hired and, at times, must be fired as the market changes. And contrary to what many of the posters on this site may think, it is entirely possible to do that in a way which the affected employees will appreciate and understand.