HR Playbook: How Much Information Should Be Shared in a Termination Meeting?

Every manager or human resource professional will be faced with letting an employee go. These

meetings, which best occur in person, are life impacting meetings. When you consider the impact on the employee, it’s no wonder that some lose sleep as they prepare for these meetings. The employee is about to lose income, benefits and will have a hefty blow to his/her esteem. Images of that employee heading home to share the update with a spouse can be upsetting, too. Imagine having to carry that message home to your spouse and children?

(Truth be told, in my experience the terminated employee rarely shares the full truth with a spouse. Blame is generally placed, to some degree, on the manager, organization or even unclear standards of performance. I’ve received many an email or call from a spouse of a recently terminated employee, asking me how a good company could terminate its ‘best performing’ employee.)

This short article will focus on that final meeting, and exactly how much information to share. The assumptions I’ve inserted are that the termination is for job performance, and that the employee had been previously coached about her performance.

(Please keep in mind that surprising an employee with an action such as termination is an invitation for the most unpredictable reactions. A good termination meeting, in my opinion, is when you invite the employee in, and say “Do you know why we’re here?” to which he replies “Yeah, my month-end performance wasn’t to the level we discussed. I imagine that I may lose my job.” To me, that’s a sign of a good manager)

Here’s the juggling act:

• The terminated employee, assuming he is not stunned and silent, will likely demand to know all the details, and may even want to debate a few of the facts.
• Your company’s inside counsel or human resource department has advised you to be cautious with how much you share, as sharing too much information could create legal exposure for the organization.

How can you respectfully satisfy the needs of both parties? Can you share enough information to satisfy the terminated employee, while still protecting the company? The answer is YES.

Let’s Make it Simple

• Sharing too little will infuriate the employee and likely make matters worse. A manager I once coached would only say “It’s not working out” and would refuse to share any specifics. I had some crazy fights on his behalf on both the unemployment and even higher battlefields, all because the employee wanted to know why he was let go.
• Sharing too much invites legal exposure. If a manager sits down and shares exactly why the employee is being let go, and each-and-every specific incident, chances are that the employee may be able to counter or explain away an incident or two. It also shows all of the organization’s ‘cards’, should the matter escalate. Outside counsel would love to have a full picture of the organization’s defense in advance of determining whether they will take or pass on taking this claim against the organization.

The perfect balance, in my opinion, is to tell the employee exactly why he/she is being terminated, with some high-level information that they will likely agree with. With the exception of perhaps a ‘final straw,’ specifics need not be covered in this termination meeting.

Why does this work? Employees deserve to know why they’re being let go. Sharing too little angers the employee and makes matters worse. This balance of respectfully informing but withholding specifics has been the best approach I’ve found.

Employees leave the meeting feeling respectfully informed, even if they don’t agree with the outcome. Additionally, the company’s full defense for this decision, if challenged, remains intact in a file for future reference.

Example

An example of this might be as follows:

“Rudy, thanks for coming in. We’ve just reviewed April’s performance statistics and your statistics aren’t up to the standards we set last month. I’m sure that you remember when we talked a month ago and set an acceptable level of performance, and two weeks ago when I gave you a status update. We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and there has not been any significant improvement, I’m afraid that we’re going to have to let you go.”

(As I work with a manager, preparing her for a termination meeting, I tell the manager that if she is not done terminating the employee in 90 seconds, that she’s saying too much, or being too indirect. There is certainly more to the meeting, but the important message can, and should be delivered that quickly.)

It Depends

I wouldn’t be a true HR professional if I didn’t insert “it depends” somewhere in this Blog. Each and every termination meeting needs to be approached with respect to both the individual, and the circumstances.

That’s what I love about working in HR – the requirement to THINK each and every time that we must make a recommendation. Please don’t look at a simple termination checklist and assume that your preparation is complete.