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Chana R Schoenberger
Q: At the division I run, we declined to renew an employee's contract and she
sued us for gender discrimination, even though more than half of the people in
our department are women. What's the best way to ensure that we can separate
from employees quickly, without drama, and with dignity for the employee
involved? We try to treat our people well but sometimes it's necessary to
terminate the employment relationship.
A: The best way to treat your team members with dignity is by speaking with
them openly about their performance and career prospects, and by offering
suggestions for changes. You must also be clear about your requirements for the
job. If you re not being candid, you re doing your employees and yourself a
disservice.
People can t improve if they don t know what you consider substandard
performance and you can t reasonably expect them to read your mind. What s
more, most of us feel more betrayed when bad news comes as a surprise. Did the
employee believe her contract would be renewed? Why did she believe that, if
so? Perhaps it was because she didn t know her work wasn t up to par.
That s why feedback is key. It is even more important when you are terminating
someone.
A lot of negative feelings can be mitigated with clear, on-going
communication, said Eliza Wicher, an industrial and organisational
psychologist who is a senior manager in talent development at Motorola
Solutions in Chicago.
How you frame the discussion is significant. In a situation like this, the
employee's perception of how they were treated is just as important as the
rationale behind the employer's decision, Wicher said.
Why the employee s contract was not renewed is also an important question. If
you declined to offer her another contract because your budget shrunk, or
because you had too many employees in one group, you should have let her know
in advance that this was likely to happen, Wicher said. It s only fair to give
her enough time to look for another position if you're not firing her because
she did something wrong.
If her performance was the reason for not renewing her contract, she should
have been forewarned, albeit in a different way.
All employees, even contract employees, should have a clear understanding of
how they are performing and be given opportunities to improve performance,
Wicher said.
You can accomplish this by giving specific feedback frequently, letting your
employee know exactly what she needs to do. If you didn t tell her what was
wrong and give her time to fix it according to an agreed-upon plan, you didn t
treat her fairly. You may not have discriminated against her, but you didn t
give her the chance to fight for her job.