Employment Termination

What is Termination from Employment?
What does it mean when an employee is terminated or dismissed from the employment/job position? Well, when an employee ends his/her job is termed as “termination”. Termination can be occurred by employer or by employee himself/herself. Dismissal is differ from termination. Dismissal is when an employee is dismissed or fired by the employer only for some reasons while in the case of termination, it can be initiated by employer and employee both. Termination is a kind of release of an employee against his/her will or with his/her will. Terminations typically are the part of the business and actions such as termination or dismissal become important and evident to preserve the health of a business.

Types of Termination
Job terminations are typically categorized into two categories. Terminations can be voluntary and involuntary depending on the situations and circumstances.
1) Voluntary Job Termination:
When termination is initiated by the employee himself/herself, it is typically termed as ‘Voluntary Job Termination’. Voluntary terminations usually includes resignation from employee or retirement. It is also known as the ‘At-Will Termination by the Employee’.
2) Involuntary Job Termination:
When the termination is initiated by the employer, then this kind of termination is typically termed as ‘Involuntary Job Termination’. In this case the employee can be terminated by the employer at any point of time for some reasons such as lack of work, poor performance or any misconducting event or misbehavior from the employee. Involuntary termination can also be occurred because of company downsizing or restructuring.

GenericCauses for Employment Termination
There may be any reason of employment termination depending on the circumstances. Some of the main reasons for termination are listed below:
●Resignation from the employee
●Retirement of the employee
● At-will termination
● Employee misconduct or misbehavior
●Employee’s poor or unsatisfactory performance
● Failure to meet expectations
● Lack of work from employee
● Violation of company code of conduct or ethics policy
●Violence or threatened violence
●Failure to follow company policy
● Harassment of other employees or customers of the company
● Reductions In Force (RIF)
●Company downsizing
● Company restructuring.

Notices and Warning Letters Prior to Termination
Enough notices and warning letters must be issued to the targeted employee before issuing him/her a letter of termination to keep the process legal. There should be some established procedures that must be followed by the manager in order to terminate an employee. Supervisors typically are required to document the problem related to employee and then prepare a performance plan for addressing the issues related and then warn the employee verbally before terminating him/her. In case verbal warning is ignored by the employee then supervisor needs to write them the warning letter and eventually a final warning prior to terminate the employee.

Letter of Termination
In case all the verbal warning, written warning in the form of warning letter issued and final warning are neglected and ignored by the targeted employee then the letter of termination must be issued to the employee in order to preserve the health of the business and to maintain the procedures of the business.

What should be included in Termination Letter (Involuntary Termination)?
Supervisors or HRs are required to include all the below mentioned important points while crafting an effective, clear and to the point Termination Letter in case of Involuntary Termination.
● Provide the cause/causes for which Termination Letter is been issued
● Keep your language professional (don’t take it personnel)
● Mention the event which shows employee’s misconduct/misbehavior with other employees
● If the case is, specify the violence by the employee
●Specify about violating the company code of conduct and company ethics and policy.
● Specify performance issues or lack of work
●Specify the cause of failure to meet expectations
● Specify the other reasons of termination such as company downsizing or company restructuring (if applicable).