Re-Organization and Layoff

The process of firing an employee

The process of firing an employee is never easy. It can be exceedingly challenging to break the news when it involves company-wide layoffs or subpar performance. Finding measures to improve the situation for both the employee facing termination and the person who must deliver the bad news is always preferable. Our group’s concern can be summed up by posing the following query: How can this procedure be improved to ensure that all people involved in the scenario are adequately equipped to handle it? When trying to answer this question, our group worked to find some practical and creative solutions to this problem and to overcome any barriers to we faced along the way.

Solutions

As a team, we discussed various solutions. One solution that stood out was that companies hold a mass training seminar on the difficulties of layoffs and terminations. The training would provide a two-fold solution. First, would be to provide employees with a better concept of the process, and deciding factors that go into such a decision. Second, it would give those in a position of management and human resource an enhanced understanding of what it feels like to be laid off or terminated. The decision to administer layoffs is certainly not one that is to be treated lightly. Employers are forced into situations that require them to make hard choices for the sake of the company. When an employee is let go, he or she has lots of emotions that they suddenly face. For example, they can get emotional because their current living situation is dependent on their job. The focused seminar can provide an open forum to discuss these scenarios with each other. When employees can communicate with each other and voice their concerns, it builds comradery while also giving each side a better picture of their counterpart’s responsibilities. The topic of termination can be very sensitive but with the right training, it can be much better for all parties.

A second solution the team came up with to help the employee avoid being laid off, and terminated altogether is an employee performance tracker. Instead of letting go of an employee with no ample reasoning or understanding, this performance tracker would be an excellent tool used by the company to document any incidents that the employee was involved in that would violate a company policy. With each occurrence being investigated and well documented, the employee would know exactly what information was being recorded in his personnel file. These incidents involving breaking company policies would also be tracked on a three strike, or you’re out scale. The first violation of misconduct results in a written warning. The second violation is a firm and final warning and the last time the employee violates the policy then it leads to termination of the employee. This type of performance tracker will keep not only the employee well aware of his or her misconduct but also the company if ever the need for layoffs come around. The company would be able to use the employee performance tracker to narrow down their choice of workers to let go from the business with a bit more ease and reasoning.

Methods

After clearly defining the problem, our team used several methods in order creatively find practical solutions. The first technique that we utilized was brainstorming, where we came up with as many solutions to the problem as possible. During this process, we each input our analysis on the brainstormed solutions we found together and offered suggestions on how to better improve these solutions. We then discussed the solutions that we found to be the most efficient in solving this issue. After picking the top two solutions, we objectively evaluated any barriers to these solutions and how our team was able to work through them. It allowed us to make a final decision on the best possible solutions to the issues faced during the layoff and termination process.

Team Barriers

After working together as a team for the past few weeks, there is a sense of teamwork that we now have and the flow of decision-making seems to be more streamlined. The biggest barrier we faced for our first solution was how to relay information about the layoffs and terminations or if they should even happen at all. We came arrived at a solution that putting together a forum to speak with the employees that remained would be the best procedure. The second solution was putting together a Personal Improvement Plan (PIP) before the employee reached the point of termination. Our team discussion became very elaborate and detailed, which allowed us to hone in on the biggest barrier and to make the decision to move forward. It is important for companies to be aware of possible barriers to communication. In general, physical separation and differences in status, gender, culture, and language can potentially either block or distort effective communication (Lombardo, 2015).

Conclusion

Despite the urge to gravitate towards solutions to this problem that have been used in companies before, our team decided to think outside of the box and find new ways of making this process easier for everyone involved. We came up with several solutions using creative thinking methodology and overcoming several barriers to arrive at these solutions. After discussing our thoughts and ideas, two solutions stood out as more effective than the others. First, a seminar should be held to teach employees and employers effective ways to handle the situation, understand each other’s points of view, and give them an open forum to be able to communicate their opinions on this process. Second, there should be an employee performance plan in place with three strikes, or you’re laid off. It would allow for the employee to know exactly what they are doing right and wrong, to be warned several times before action is taken against them, and for both parties to have well-documented reasons for the termination. We also affected several different communication barriers, such as how to relay the necessary information to each other. In the end, we discovered answers to our question and practical solutions to our problem.

Reference

Lombardo, J. (2015, July n.d). Barriers to Effective Communication: Definition & Examples. Retrieved from Study.com: http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-importance-of-message-follow-up.html