Many jobs are regarded as at will employment, yet employees could still end up suing their employer when the cause of termination is found to be illegal.
Thankfully, termination is common in every workplace, so it is a must to deal with it with professionalism and delicacy. Below are some simple tips to save your company from wrongful termination lawsuits.
Document Everything
Even when a worker is alerted to concerns on behavior, tardiness, or performance, it could be hard to prove the feedback with no documentation. Recording everything not only protects your company from wrongful termination lawsuits for it also improves communication and transparency on ongoing issues. it then enhances consistency of organizations, which can prevent problems from different angles.
Discuss Expectations
Telling your employees what are expected from them right from the start will help prevent any issues on performance, and protect your company in case a worker is fired because he or she did not meet these expectations. Regular feedback should of course be given for the employees to know whether they meet expectations or not. If an employee gets constant warnings on performance issues, it will not be a surprise is termination follows.
Show Compassion During Terminations
One of the most stressful things that one could ever experience in life is being fired. Once the time comes that you need to terminate someone, whatever the reason might be, showing compassion can help ease the situation’s apparent tension. How an employee feels after and during the termination can be a primary factor whether the employee will pursue a legal action or not.
Guide Employees in Taking the Next Steps
Those employees who managed to land a new job right away following a termination usually don’t file wrongful termination lawsuits. This is the reason why it will help if you will assist employees in the next steps they will take as part of the process of termination. Helping with networking or offering a reference, particularly in instances where a worker was let go due to downsizing, can help them in moving forward quick enough and preventing any downtime that can induce stress.
Get a Liability Insurance
While your business might consider it as yet another expense, a liability insurance could save you dollars if your employee decides to file for wrongful termination lawsuits. Aside from this type of insurance, it also makes sense to ensure that the option will still exist to defend against lawsuits and avoid settlements, even when liability insurance is offered to help in paying settlements once they are deemed to be the most suitable course of action.
Any form of termination is hard for the employee and employer alike so sticking to some guidelines can help ease away some stress of this situation while preventing any hard feelings which could often lead to wrongful termination lawsuits.
Through detailing expectations, and developing a consistent chain of events which took place before termination, companies can protect themselves from any liability. Workers also get to feel more secure when they know what to expect and see that other employees are also held accountable.
