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Mike Coffey: Thanks for listening to The Imperative Podcast. I'm Mike Coffey, President of Imperative Information Group. As an employment background screening firm we are most often involved in the high point of the employer/employee relationship. When a new hire comes in the door, expectations are high and it’s all wine and roses. Things don’t always work out as expected though and my guest today is an expert in the other end of the employment cycle; that is, terminating employment. Brad Smith is the Vice-President of Business Development for DBM, a global outplacement firm. I've had the privilege for knowing Brad for the better part of the last fifteen years. In fact, we first met when I was responsible for coordinating a layoff for a previous employer. Brad is a well-respected thought leader in the north Texas HR community and a great supporter of the Ft. Worth Human Resource Management Association. In fact, he’ll be the speaker at Ft. Worth HR’s January 15 luncheon meeting. Thanks for joining us today Brad.

Brad Smith: Thank you Mike.

Mike: Separating an employee is something that every HR professional has to do at some point and many frontline managers have to deal with as well. Nobody ever gets where they enjoy it but how do you know at the end of the process whether you even did a good job? How do you know your separation meeting with this employee was successful?

Brad: Well there are a number of different ways. I think first of all I'd like to say that the most dangerous conversation a manager ever has with an employee is the one that takes place during the termination interview and there’s an acid test that I like to challenge my companies, client companies, on and that is two things. Are we being fair and equitable and is this the way we’d want to be treated. So I think at the end of the termination, whether it be one person or a group of people, have we treated the person fairly, have we communicated properly, and have we helped them maintain their dignity as they exit. Most lawsuits as a result of termination come from as a result of the way the person was notified and how that person exited the property. So I think another way of determining whether it was a successful conversation is does the individual sign their waiver or their separation agreement and if they don’t sue, which is always a big concern when you notify someone that they’re no longer with the company.

Mike: From the employee’s point of view, what are the objectives of them to walk away with at the end of the separation meeting? This is obviously something that they probably don’t want to happen so what do you give them so that when they’re walking away they feel like they were treated fair and equitably?

Brad: Well I think first of all you need to be clear and concise in how the message is delivered and typically it’s the person’s immediate supervisor that delivers the message and their job is to legally notify the employee that they’re no longer with the company. These conversations should take about from 5-10 minutes and HR is there as a witness to go over the packet. As the employee leaves, especially if it comes as a shock, there needs to be some structure involved so that employee knows what to do, what the next steps are, and how they exit the building. Most people could count before they could read so they want to know how much and it’s important that the severance packet be gone over fairly quickly and fairly concisely and then allow that person to call back with any questions. Typically this should be done at the end of a work day so that the person can either exit or go home or make arrangements with human resources to come back and get their belongings and their personal stuff. But for the employee, it needs to be clear and concise that they heard the message.

Mike: What about the old line about Friday afternoons being the right time to terminate an employee?

Brad: Well we think that that is the worst time to terminate an employee, especially an employee that you’re gonna provide outplacement services to. The reason for that is if it’s done earlier in the week, they can accomplish something towards their next job, either updating their resume or filing for unemployment compensation, whatever it is. But on Friday afternoon, they have the whole weekend to stew over it quite frankly and the anxiety builds and the stress level builds. If we can see them, for instance, after they have been notified, if it’s on a Monday or a Tuesday, a lot of times they can have a resume going into the weekend, which is the first hump they need to get over looking forward. You want an employee who has been notified, or has been separated, to start looking forward to their next position instead of looking back and allowing emotion to build. It’s not good for the employee. It’s not good for the employee’s family and it’s certainly not good for the company.

Mike: You mentioned working with DBM. Do ya’ll primarily work with employees who’ve been laid off or do you also work with employees who just weren’t performing at a level the company needed them to or just weren’t good fits for the job or things like that?

Brad: Yeah, the typical reasons for someone being released from the company, and there are a number, but essentially it’s either a business downturn and we usually see that in multiple notifications, for performance, they didn’t meet their performance goals set out the year before, for chemistry, the just don’t get along with their boss and we see a lot of people that have been a good performer but they get a new boss and it just doesn’t work out for them, for cause, or for skill sets issues. We see a lot of companies that are in growth mode that will call us and say, “We just need – we’re gonna release Tom on Monday and the reason is that he just – we don’t believe he has the skill sets going forward that we need to make the changes that we need.” I know when in 2001 when the economy, 2002-2003 we had a lot of calls from companies saying that, “We’re going in a different direction and this person doesn’t have the skill sets to take us there.” So there’s a number of different reasons.

Mike: Is that separation meeting different significantly whether you’re laying off because of a business downturn versus when it’s something specific to the employee’s performance or skill set?

Brad: Yeah, yeah it is difficult. I think it is more difficult when it’s a performance or a skill set issue because of the self-esteem that goes along with it and on one-off situations like that there’s a lot of shock involved and sometimes there’s a lot of anger involved too. In a business downturn, the rumor mill is usually keen and when somebody is notified it’s, “Well I knew it was coming. I just didn’t know it was going to be me.” So the company’s telegraphing they don’t want to but they do just because not too many people can keep a secret. Most employees especially in a smaller company can see a little and figure a lot. But when you call someone in their office and say, “Look this isn’t working out,” the message really needs to be clear and a lot of times on that regard the pushback can be a little more intense.

Mike: Well, okay so say you’re going to terminate an employee for cause or for layoff reasons or whatever. What are some basic things that the manager should do before they call that employee in their office? How should they be prepared for that?

Brad: Well there’s a number of things they should do. They need to think about the time and location. Typically it should be earlier in the week, later in the day. There should be a witness, hopefully a human resources professional. The severance package should already be put together, whatever the severance policy is, that’s where human resources – I'd like to say one thing right here. If human resources is the hub of these types of conversations, they go fairly smoothly. But the biggest problem, the biggest problem, is when and where the company is most legally liable, is when the notifying manager opens his or her mouth. That’s why it’s really important that a script is prepared and the manager practices the scripts. I always have my notifying managers practice the script out loud. They need to hear themselves say it. They need to hear their own voice. Reading it from a piece of paper and hearing yourself say it is – I mean, it’s monumental. It’s extremely important. So basically the three rules are stick to the script, stick to the script, stick to the script. You deliver the message and then you anticipate the reaction. Silence is okay. You don’t have to fill every void. The quickest that you can, a notifying manager, can pass off the employee to human resources the better off it’s going to be for the employee, for human resources, and for the company. You also need to anticipate any security or medical issues that could happen. In other words, an extreme case is the person, are they diabetic, do they have a heart condition, are they basically an angry person, do they have any other stressors in their life; it’s not necessarily the loss of the job, it’s the loss of the job and the other stressor, a sick child, a bad marriage, sick parent, whatever it might be. Then, to map out the next steps, what happens when the individual leaves the notifying office and I always recommend that you bring the person into the manager’s office and all the details are handled right there. If you have an outplacement consultant on site then we should come into that office. You shouldn’t bring the person and kind of troupe them all over the place. Just keep it in one centralized location and then give them a choice, if they want to pick up their stuff and leave, say goodbye to a few people, or whether they would rather make arrangements to come back and pick up their personal items. As a manager you need to prepare for your own emotional preparation. This isn’t easy but it does come with the territory. People who can’t do it shouldn’t be with the company. People who enjoy doing it shouldn’t be with the company either. It’s one of those things that comes with the territory.

Mike: What about the remaining employees, those people that are left behind after this has happened, whether it’s a big layoff or just the really popular guy in the office that wasn’t performing and had to be let go? What can a manager do about those folks?

Brad: Well I think in either situation the manager should meet with their direct reports immediately and/or that person’s peers, tell them that Tom is no longer with the company and here’s what’s gonna happen with his work assignments, who’s gonna be taking over his work assignments. Then after that, manage by wandering for a day. If people have questions they need to come in and talk to you. This usually doesn’t happen as much with an individual notification as it does with a business downturn where there are a number of people being released on that morning. The second phase of this is how do you manage that change. I've seen companies do it very well and I've seen companies do it very poorly. What happens when they do it very poorly is they don’t reach the minimum acceptable level for production or for their employees and then they start losing the people they don’t want to lose because they haven’t managed the change and the transition to whatever the new company is going to look like. As a matter of fact if it’s handled very poorly, after about 60 days it’s not really true who the true winners and losers were, the people who are left are the people that stayed. There’s so much anxiety built up about the notifications that after a notification day for lack of better terms it’s suddenly realized, the company realizes, “Hey we have business to take care of. We have to open the doors and turn the lights on again and do business and we need the remaining people to help us do that and if they’re not on board, not gonna happen.” More importantly if the managers aren’t on board it’s never gonna happen.

Mike: Sometimes especially during terminations for cause the company rumor mill begins to buzz with incorrect information about the reason why someone was terminated. That fire is often stoked by the terminated employee or by his friends who are still working for that employer. What advice would you give a manager facing that situation?

Brad: I would stick to the script and when you’re explaining you’re losing. You tell the reason they were asked to leave and that’s the reason and that is exactly what you say over and over and over again.

Mike: So you just share even with peers and co-workers terminated for performance and just move on.

Brad: Absolutely, absolutely. I wouldn’t get into details. You need to be at peace with what you can and cannot control. You need to be at peace with what people are going to say. You are as a manager the one that is going to notify the person that they’re no longer with the company and that’s why it’s so important to have a script and so important to stick with the script even after the person left. You can’t control what they’re going to say. When we meet with people that have left in a situation like this we always remind them that all the good work that they’ve done can be wiped out by how they behave after they leave, today and going forward. The other fact is that the released employee is going to need this company as a reference. So you need to be very careful and you really need to think through that. sometimes we’ll call them, depending on the circumstances, once we meet with them we’ll call them later that evening, see how they’re feeling, what they’re doing, and remind them again of the facts that I just stated.

Mike: Well Brad thanks for taking the time today. We appreciate it and we look forward to your presentation on January 15 at the Ft. Worth Human Resources Management Association.

Brad: Thanks Mike, I appreciate you asking.

Mike: And thank you for listening to The Imperative Podcast. In January we’re going to be giving away an IPod to a luck listener. To enter the contest, just go to our website. That’s ImperativeInfo.com and click on the listener contest graphic wherever you see it. To enter the contest you’re going to need an entry code, so here it is: FWHRMA. Okay, just type FWHRMA in the entry code box and you’ll be entered in the contest to win an IPod nano. The winner will be announced on February 2 so be sure to enter soon. While you’re on our website you can hear all of our previous podcasts or read our HR related blog items. You can also learn more about background checks and the other services we offer. Finally, in today’s economic climate it’s critical to get every hiring decision right. Do you really have the time or budget to recruit, hire, train, manage, and then terminate a bad hire? A good background check needs to be a critical piece of your employee selection process. If you don’t absolutely love your current background screening partner, please give me a call at toll-free 877-473-2287. I'm Mike Coffey, President of Imperative Information Group. Thanks and have a great 2009.