Avoid Illegal Dismissal Lawsuit by Employing Dismission KPI

By Sam Miller


You might think that firing an obviously unproductive employee is a simple matter for managers. Nothing could be further from the truth; besides the fact that firing an employee is something any manager does not relish doing, he also needs to conform to a few rules or else he might face a suit for unlawful dismissal. For this reason, dismission KPI is very important to managers and companies.

Unfortunately, there are some employees that really need to be fired. But how do you do it? Can you not just walk up to their desks and say "You're fired"? Of course, you cannot just do that. First, the rules covering dismissal must be made clear to employees right at the first day of employment. The fact is that these rules must be part of new employee orientation and it is the obligation of employers to ensure that employees are thoroughly oriented on the dos and don'ts of the company. Being remiss on these matters, you give the offending employee the opportunity to fire back and create a lot of inconvenience by simply claiming that he was unaware of any regulations under which he is being fired.

Now, not all misconduct can be legitimate grounds for dismissal. There are what companies refer to as general misconduct and gross misconduct. Under the general misconduct category are relatively minor offenses, like habitual lateness for work, use of company equipment without permission, or underperformance when said underperformance has no grave and serious repercussions to the welfare of the company. Behaviors that fall under grave misconduct are those that are harmful to the company, like drunkenness, violence, destruction of company property, fraud, theft, security breaches, harassment, serious negligence, and discrimination. Misconduct under the general misconduct category can also be elevated to gross misconduct when employee remains recalcitrant despite repeated warnings. These offenses and categorizations must be clear to employees.

Generally, it is inviting lawsuit to just fire an employee without first giving him warning. Employees who are determined upon performance evaluation to be performing below expectations have the right to be informed of such evaluation. Even if he continues to perform poorly, it is better to reassign rather than dismiss him as long as the reason for the poor performance is not willful negligence.

The normal process for dismissal calls for at least two or three warnings to make sure that employee is given the chance to rectify mistakes or improve performance. These warnings must be in written form and a copy must be forwarded to personnel for the 201 files. Likewise, dismissal must be in written form. This way, in case of lawsuit, proper documentation can be produced to establish legality of the dismissal.

Some forms of misconduct are meted with immediate dismissal. And companies should be clear on what they are. Still, a formal investigation, unless the employee is caught red-handed, should be done to ensure that the punishment is deserved without question. It will be helpful to form a body to investigate the misconduct and its circumstances.

Avoid Illegal Dismissal Lawsuit by Employing Dismission KPI