Imagine you’ve recruited an employee who, for all intents and purposes, seemed competent enough.

At least, that’s what you thought when you hired him.

But over the last few months, you’ve noticed that he is just not performing up to the standard you were expecting. Maybe he’s missing deadlines, turning in incomplete reports or just isn’t “getting it”.

You need to do something. You don’t have time to babysit, and constant errors are affecting your team’s credibility. You see nothing else to do, but let him go.

But terminating an employee on a whim can be a risky move for your business. You need a practical and fair process help reduce your liability. Moreover, it’s best to give employees plenty of time to improve, and give them the tools needed to get there. After all, recruiting, hiring, onboarding and training a new employee can be very costly.

But when all else fails, termination may be necessary. In these cases, it’s best-practice to follow a progressive discipline process – which generally includes a series of increasingly severe penalties for repeated offenses – if you want to conduct performance-based terminations the right way.

Here are a few things to keep in mind before you get to that step.

1. Write down everything

Documentation is key. If you don’t write something down, it can be argued that it didn’t happen. Even informal conversations written in a notebook can be helpful and count toward documentation.

I know what you’re thinking – documentation takes time. Time you don’t have. Nonetheless, it can be your friend should you have to defend your decision.

2. Clearly communicate expectations

Let’s start at the very beginning.

For every job, you should have a job description. Even if you don’t have anything formalized, you should have a solid understanding of the functions and responsibilities of each role on your team. You should also know what it takes for employees to be successful in each role.

And it’s essential that your employees know this, too.

Don’t assume. People come with their own perspectives that don’t always match their boss’. Each role should be clearly defined. This makes it easier to pinpoint and correct problems.

Additionally, your progressive discipline policy should already be established, outlining how corrective action and termination should take place should you need to go there. This helps ensure every issue is handled consistently and fairly.

3. Be a good coach

Both new and existing employees should be coached. This is informal feedback and consists of what’s right as well as what’s wrong. Think of a football coach. He gives praise for a good pass or a solid tackle, but also points out the missed catches and holes in the defense.

Your employees need this feedback to understand how they are doing well before you get to the point of considering disciplinary action or termination.

4. Initiate a performance improvement plan (PIP)

So, let’s say you’ve provided ongoing coaching, but you’re seeing some major concerns with performance that the coaching hasn’t affected. This would be a good time to develop a performance improvement plan (PIP).

The PIP should articulate specifically what the problem areas are and give detailed goals for what is expected to correct it.

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