Employee theft is not a topic that managers want to discuss, though it happens a lot in the workplace.  What constitutes employee theft?   Anywhere from stealing time, supplies or an outright theft where a trusted employee embezzles thousands of dollars.    Small companies are vulnerable because they don’t usually have in place financial control systems that insure employees are honest.

Studies show that people will rationalize taking something that doesn’t belong to them if the environment is ripe for the taking.    That’s why it’s important that managers/owners help employees stay honest by setting up clear guidelines and systems that protect the assets of the company.

Terminating an employee is stressful for managers.  It impacts you, the employee and the rest of the team.   Yet, not handling this challenging issue also impacts the productivity of the team.

Most states are ”at will” which means an employer and employee can terminate the employment relationship at any time without cause.    Obviously, if you have an employment contract you need to make sure those rights haven’t changed.

There are two different types of employee issues:  performance and/or behavior based.    Both need to be address as soon as you notice the issues.

Have you heard of this statement “hire slow, fire fast?”  It’s a good school of thought to follow when managing employees.  A bad hire decreases the productivity of everyone on your team.   Yet…you still need a process in place to deal with employee issues and termination.

New Employees

What does firing fast mean?   It doesn’t mean the first time an employee’s performance is below satisfactory you terminate them.   What it does mean is that you are coaching, counseling and tracking the performance of your new hires.  If you see that an employee is not able to perform the essential functions of their position, you need to intervene quickly out of respect for them, you and the rest of your team.

Final Step

What do you do after you have coached and counseled an employee and they still do not meet performance expectations or correct the behavioral issue(s)? It can be a challenge to decide if an employee is going to succeed in their role.

You can’t change a person’s effort or behavior…only they can. What you can do is give them:

·Clear performance expectations,
·effective training and
·provide them with a respectful work environment.