How to Fire People

There is no nice way of firing people, even if you call it rightsizing, downsizing, offshoring or bestshoring. One way or another you are seriously messing with someone's life. There are, broadly, four ways of doing it:

1. The legal method. The law is an ass. It makes firing far more painful for everyone. The legal way is to give an informal warning, a written warning, a final warning together with rights of appeal to an independent adjuticator at each point, before finally dismissing someone.This is a recipe for conflict: from the first warning onwards you have lost all trust between employer and employee and you are heading to legal conflict and employment tribunals.. Great for lawyers, lousy for human beings.
2. Stuff their pockets with gold. This is the preferred method of organisations with deep pockets. Banks pass the expense onto customers, local authorities pass the expense onto ratepayers. This is an easy way out which requires little management effort. It privatises the gains and socialises the costs of firing the incompetent.
3. The Apprentice method. This copies Sir Alan Sugar announcing,"You're fired!"
   In its worst form the message is sent by text by the receivers when the firm is going bankrupt: it is legal in the event of bankruptcy and requires zero management talent or humanity. That is why receivers like the method.
4. The traditional method. This would be done quietly. A struggling performer would quietly be asked to improve and would get help as required. If improvement was not forthcoming, another informal and private word would be had.Eventually, the individual would be given time to find another job.Because it's done privately, everyone's dignity is kept intact. The individual would apparently choose to leave voluntarily: redundancy costs and unemployment would be avoided to the benefit of employer and employee alike.

• Keep it legal, and document everything.
• Try to maintain the dignity and respect of the person leaving: because they are human and deserve to be treated well, and because they are less likely to sue if they are well treated.
• Hold your nerve: ultimately, the survival of the organisation is more important than the survival of an individual.
• Look after the survivors: after firings or redundancies, morale is low. Provide reassurance and hope -- show that the future will be better than the past.