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  • Whether someone put in his or her two-week notice or needs to be fired, the exit of an employee is not an easy process. There are a number of steps that need to be taken when an employee leaves. Proper procedures can be the difference between a clean break or a messy breakup that could lead to a claim by the former employee. Here are 10 steps to take during the departure process.

    Group Management Services can help guide you through the employee departure process.

    1. Issue a Final Paycheck

    Employees need to be paid when they’re on their way out, and it may not fall in your usual payroll cycle. State laws dictate when a departing employee needs to receive their final paycheck, but each state differs on how long you have to pay them and if you need to include unused vacation time.

    2. Reimburse any Expenses

    Make sure that any potential expenses – whether from travel or training – that were paid for by the departing employee are reimbursed promptly.

    3. Collect Company Property

    You’ll want to collect any company property from the departing employee before he or she leaves. This can include anything from company files, computers, keys, or even a car.

    4. Cancel Credit Cards

    You’ll want to collect company cards from departing employees, but you’ll also want to cancel the account as well

    5. Deactivate Passwords

    Once an employee is gone, you don’t want them going back into their accounts (especially if they were fired). Deactivate all of their passwords and accounts where applicable.

    PDF: Managing the Employee Lifecycle

    6. Arrange for Continued Benefits

    Depending on the situation, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) may require you to offer continued health coverage for a specified period of time after an employee leaves.

    7. Reallocate Departing Employee’s Work

    You’ll need to have a plan in place to split up the departing employee’s work load when they leave. If the employee is leaving on good terms, it would be helpful to have them give the employees picking up their duties – whether short term or long term – a rundown on their projects and tasks.

    8. Deal with Confidentiality and Noncompete Issues

    Depending on what the employee had access to or what they worked on, you’ll want to sit down with him or her and have a discussion about confidentially agreements and obligations. You’ll also want to review how their noncompete agreement works if they signed one.

    9. Delete the Employee’s Name from Documents

    Once an employee is gone, that change needs to be reflected everywhere. Check documents on anything available to people outside the company and remove the departing employee’s name. Also, make sure that they are removed from the website.

    10. Assign a Contact Person and Inform Key People 

    You may know that your employee is leaving, but not everyone else does. Make an announcement to the rest of your office so that everyone is on the same page. You’ll also want to redirect any emails that went to his company account so that they don’t get lost. 

    Assign a contact person to receive these emails – and answer any questions from the departing employee – and let key clients or customers know about the change if they’ll be directly affected.

    Navigating the Departure Process with GMS

    Employee turnover isn’t easy. That’s why GMS can partner with you to strengthen your HR needs, including protection from potential claims and a streamlined departure process.

    You keep full control of your employees, but we can help you make those decisions – and everything that follows – easier for you and your business. Contact us today to see how Group Management Services can guide you through the departure process.

  • Employee performance reviews can offer useful insight into how your employees are performing if done well. An open, honest review can help motivate employees and provide employers with opportunities to improve internal processes. Here are four tips to making your employee reviews more effective.

    1. Multiple Reviews

    The end-of-year review can be a stressful situation for both employees and employers. With the time crunch created by the holiday season, the late-year review can add extra pressure with people’s minds on work deadlines and potential bonuses.

    That’s why a mid-year review (or even a 30/60/90-day review) can help take some of the stress out of the reviewing equation. That way you can dedicate more time to setting up your employees for success than trying to cram in a whole year’s worth of work into a single review.

    2. Focus on Everything, Just Not the Period Right Before the Review

    If you’re doing a yearly review (or as we suggested earlier, a midyear review), make sure that you’ve been paying attention to your employees throughout the review period. You aren’t just checking in on how an employee performs when he or she knows a review is coming up; you’re tracking overall performance.  Tracking and measuring (positive & possible negative) performance indicators, coupled with a mechanism to track these indicators is a key.

    Your employees want to know that you care, so come to a review prepared. Vague references or generalizations come off as though you don’t really notice what they do on a daily basis. Specific examples of how an employee has done show that you actually pay attention to how they are performing.

    PDF: Managing the Employee Lifecycle

    3. Focus on the Conversation

    Inevitably, there is paperwork involved in the review process. Don’t make the conversation all about that. Use the review form as a guide to help the flow of the conversation. Your employee will feel less like they are being graded on a series of check boxes and actually for content/performance over the past year.  

    4. Review Both the Employee and the Employer

    Performance reviews aren’t just meetings to gauge how your employee is doing; they’re opportunities to set them up for success. Allow the employees to assess themselves and suggest ideas to improve performance in the future. 

    Also, don’t be afraid to ask them what you can do as an employer to help them continue to build their skills. Asking them for feedback and inquiring about what their goals are can lead to your employees becoming motivated to succeed.

    Improving the Review Process with GMS

    It takes a lot of effort to handle reviews for all of your employees. GMS specializes in employee performance management and can help you perform effective employee reviews. Contact us today to see how partnering with a Professional Employer Organization can benefit you and your business.

  • Once you’ve hired a new employee, there’s a lot of work to get them up to speed with the rest of the company. The training process is an important part of the employee lifecycle. An effective program will allow your new hire to make an impact as quickly as possible.

    Preparation and in-person teaching are key elements of training, so use the following tips to help your new employees learn the ins-and-outs of your office.

    Group Management Services offers services that can help you improve your employee training program.

    Prepare for Your New Employee’s First Day – “You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression”

    Your new employee is going to need to know a few things before they even walk through the door on their first day, including:

    • When and where to arrive

    • Where to park

    • Whom to report to

    • What is the appropriate dress code (seems simple to most, but proper communication can ease some stress) 

    You will also have some things to take care of internally, such as: 

    • Letting the rest of the staff know about the new employee, and when he or she is starting

    • Getting the new hire’s work station, office materials, and other equipment ready

    • Preparing their computer and telephone, where applicable

    • Create an employee handbook, if one isn’t already in existence

    Some of these details may have been covered during the interview process, but it’s always good to provide a detailed list just to make sure that the new hire’s first day starts off on a good note.

    PDF: Managing the Employee Lifecycle

    First-Day Fundamentals

    Your new employee will be learning a lot on his or her first day, but it won’t necessarily be about job duties. The first day is an introduction of sorts – welcoming your newest staff member to the basics of your workplace. These include:

    • A tour of the facilities, including their work space, lunchroom, and bathroom

    • An introduction to everyone the new employee will work with and other key staff members

    • A brief explanation of the employee handbook

    • An explanation of work hours and breaks

    • A rundown on pay days, vacation time, and sick leave

    • The company policy on dress code and grooming

    • Any other company policies that every employee should follow

    Your new employees will also have to fill out all of the necessary paperwork to get them started. They’ll need to sign up for payroll and company benefits, while making sure that all of the required tax information is completed.

    Job Training

    Once all of the office basics have been taken care of, you still have to train your new employee about specific elements of their job. 

    It’s important to create a training list that will cover everything your new employee needs to learn, from how to use specific tools or programs, to getting used to company systems or processes.

    Patience is a Virtue

    While it’s not always easy to do, it’s also important not to overload a new employee with too much information. In fact, it can take up to six months until a new employee reaches full productivity. There’s only so much a person can absorb in a short period of time, especially when you factor in the basics of the office. 

    Don’t be afraid to spread out training sessions instead of cramming everything in a span of a few days. In-person training and actual work exercises will also be helpful so that the new hire can ask questions throughout training.

    Streamlining Your Training Process with GMS

    A lot of time and effort goes into training new employees. GMS can help you through the process. GMS can assist with all phases of an employee on-boarding program.  

    Contact us today to see how partnering with a Professional Employer Organization can help you and your business with employee training and more.

  • Once you’ve recruited some potential candidates, you’ll want to meet them. An interview is usually the first chance you’ll get to meet a potential employee, giving you the opportunity to see just who might be the newest member of your team.

    When it comes to the interview prospect, you’ll have to make a judgement call for your business. Here are some suggestions to help you optimize your interviews.

    The interview process is a key factor in finding out if a prospect is right for your company.

    Research the Candidate

    You’re hiring someone to help you meet a business need, so thoroughly reviewing their resume, calling up references, and looking for any other pertinent information can help you see if they can not only do the job, but also excel at it and solve your needs.

    Don’t be afraid to check a prospect’s social media profiles. This isn’t just to look for red flags, although you may see a few. You can get a sense of who each interviewee is, giving you a glimpse into the candidate’s life behind the titles and bullet points on a resume. This can go a long way toward finding a candidate that fits your business needs and your company culture.

    PDF: Managing the Employee Lifecycle

    Create a Conversation

    An interview is also a chance for an interviewee to size up both you and your business. Instead of reading off a list of questions, engage interviewees in conversation. You’re not trying to hire someone who’s good at rehearsing the usual responses; you’re hiring a person to join your company’s family.

    When a prospect asks a question, be open and honest. The more comfortable an interviewee is with you, the easier it will be to judge exactly who they are and whether they’ll be a good fit for your business.

    Find the Perfect Candidate, Not the Best One

    After you’re done with a round of interviews, be wary of hiring someone just for the sake of hiring someone. If none of the candidates are true fits for your business, keep searching. Look to hire the right person for the job, not just the most acceptable one out of the bunch.

    Also, remember to always follow up with people who apply for the job, regardless of if they get hired. They may not have been the right fit for your company, but they may know somebody who could be.

    Make the Call

    After the interview process is over, you’ll be able to make an offer. Once you’ve hired your next employee, make sure to offer them top-notch HR services. 

    If managing the employee lifecycle seems like a lot of work, you’re right. That’s why Group Management Services can assist you with the whole process. Contact us today to see how Group Management Services can benefit you and your employees.

  • When it comes to your employees, you want the best of the best. Top candidates aren’t always easy to find, however. Recruitment is the first step in the employee lifecycle, and you want to make sure that you have a talented pool of prospects to choose from. Here are the places that you should be looking.

    Sometimes finding new employees is about where you look and who you ask.

    Searching Externally

    Over the years, online recruiting has become one of the most common practices for finding new talent. According to the Northcoast 99, a collection of 99 top workplaces in Northeast Ohio, preferred external searches include:

    • Electronic advertisements
    • Job boards
    • College recruitment
    • Online career centers
    • Potential interested parties from your personal network

    In addition to those practices, the power of social media can help in your search. Prospective clients can be found by posting an opening on social sites like LinkedIn. You can even advertise positions on Facebook and target the ad to reach a very specific audience. Plus, you may be able to find profiles for prospective clients and do some extra scouting for promising signs or red flags.

    Searching Internally

    Employee referrals are one of the best sources for potential employees. Your employees know what – and who – it takes to succeed, so see if there are any professionals they would recommend for an opening.

    If you’re looking to fill something other than an entry-level position, internal postings can be beneficial to your search. Your own employees are already familiar with your organization, and you will already have a sense of the internal applicant’s knowledge and work ethic. Past and present interns may also have the desire – and ability – to help the team in a full-time position.

    PDF: Managing the Employee Lifecycle

    Customizing Your Search to Your Business

    Just like potential candidates, each business is going to be different. That means that some of the recruitment suggestions listed above may work better for one business than others. To keep track of which search types historically work best for your company, keep track of the following metrics:

    • Number of qualified applicants by source
    • Number of new-hires by source
    • Percentage of top performers hired
    • Ratios like resumes/applications to phone interviews, phone interviews to in-person interviews, and in-person interviews to offers

    Another factor to recruiting top talent is offering an enticing benefits package. Group Management Services can help you offer intriguing options to prospective employees after you’ve found them. Contact us today to see how partnering with a Professional Employer Organization can benefit you and your business.

  • An unexpected departure from an employee can leave owners in a tight bind. Recruiting and hiring a new employee is a big undertaking for any company. Just like employee separation, the replacement process can cost your company a lot of time and money.

    Image of a job interview. Learn about the costs of employee replacement.

    The Costs of Employee Replacement

    Employees leave companies for any number of reasons. No matter the situation, their replacement won’t be cheap. In fact, it can cost up to 50 percent of an entry-level employee’s annual salary to find a replacement. That percentage goes even higher for employees with more experience.

    Replacing one employee can be costly enough. Hitting a period where you have multiple employees leave around the same time can really hurt the company coffers. Just a few departing employees can potentially mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in replacement costs.

    Why Replacement Takes Time

    Even if you’re looking to replace someone quickly, it’s important to try and find the right person for the job. That means spending time to go through the hiring process. Necessary but time-consuming replacement costs during this time include:

    • Recruiting applicants
    • Entrance interviews
    • Employment Testing
    • Pre-employment administrative expenses
    • Medical exams, drug testing, background checks
    • Training costs

    Making a rushed hiring decision can end up hurting you in the long run. Think of the time you spend during the replacement process as an investment in your future. Sure, a person might be able to fill a role right away, but unless you take the time to make sure that they have the right skills and are a good cultural fit for your office, you might end up having to replace them sooner than you’d like.

    Employee Management

    Recruiting and replacement takes time, and sometimes you just don’t have much time to give. Teaming up with a Professional Employer Organization like Group Management Services can allow your company to spend the time necessary to recruit, train, and retain new employees.

    At GMS, we’re in the business of making your business simpler, safer, and stronger. Contact us today to see how we can help with your recruiting needs.

  • Employees play a massive part in the success of your company. Of course, this also means that a bad employee can also lead to potential inefficiencies and other issues. 

    Firing an employee is a difficult reality of running a business. While the situation is unpleasant for everyone involved, there are right and wrong ways to go about the termination process. In fact, there are several steps you need to take before, during, and after you fire an employee. Here’s what you need to know to take the right route during the termination process.

    An employee gathering items after being fired by a small business owner. 

    What to Do Before You Fire an Employee

    Firing an employee is typically more than a one-day process. There are several actions you’ll need to take before you effectively terminate an employee to help protect your business and provide proper feedback. Depending on the employee, some of these steps may even help you improve their performance and save you from severing the relationship.

    Distribute an employee handbook

    Long before you plan to fire someone, you should make sure that every one of your employees receives an employee handbook. An updated handbook is an official document that makes the following details very clear for your employees:

    • Company philosophy
    • Conditions of employment
    • Company policies and procedures
    • Compensation and benefits

    Your employee handbook plays an important dual role for your business. First, it’s a great way for new hires to learn more about the rules, perks, and personality of your business. Second, it’s a compliance tool to make sure that your employees know and understand internal policies and grounds for dismissal. Having these rules in place – along with documentation that your employees have received your handbook – will help protect your business in case a fired employee tries to fight their dismissal in court.

    Review past performance reviews and feedback

    Before you decide to dismiss an employee, look back to see what type of feedback he or she has received in past reviews. If your employee has only heard good feedback and received raises that correspond with exemplary performance, a dismissal would come as a huge shock. 

    Not only do employee performance reviews give you a chance to set goals and expectations for an employee, they can also help protect you against claims if you’ve shared feedback indicating that an employee needed to improve. If there are no negative reviews on record, you may want to wait until you can provide some honest feedback. This way your employee may take the review as an opportunity to improve. If he or she doesn’t, you have evidence that both you and your employee knew of the continued poor performance so that you can back up your decision to terminate an employee.

    Document violations and give official warnings

    Like performance reviews, it’s important to have a documented history of any warnings or violations for any employee you decide to fire. Once it has become apparent that an employee’s performance is simply not up to standards, call them into a private space and give that person an official warning.

    It’s important to make sure that this warning is also in writing. While you explain why you’re unhappy with your employee’s performance, there should also be a printed document that the employee can sign so that you can place it in that person’s personnel file. You can also use a performance improvement plan that lists set goals for an employee to achieve within a set period of time (30 days, 90 days, etc.). Either of these options will make it clear exactly why the employee is at risk of losing his or her job and will help you back up your case as to why they needed to be dismissed.

    What to Do On the Day of Termination

    After you’ve taken the appropriate steps to give an employee an opportunity to improve and document reasons for dismissal, it’s time to act quickly and terminate the offending team member.

    Don’t wait for Friday

    While some situations call for immediate dismissals regardless of the day, certain days can be better than others if you can plan ahead. According to The Balance Careers, it’s generally best to try and aim for sometime in the middle of the week to fire an employee, preferably on a Tuesday or Wednesday. 

    Firing someone on a Monday can lead to the terminated employee feeling as though you wasted his or her time waiting until a new week has started. Friday dismissals leave the terminated employee to stew about the decision over the weekend. Aiming for the middle of the week can help mitigate bad feelings in an already difficult situation.

    Fire employees in person

    Firing an employee is already an unpleasant situation – don’t make it worse for the employee by terminating them via phone, email, or some other electronic means. While the experience will likely always be painful, it’s important to be as humane as possible when firing an employee. That approach means giving them the courtesy of hearing the news from you or another appropriate person at your company. 

    Not only is a face-to-face firing the right thing to do, it also looks much better than the alternative. Taking a less personal approach can leave a negative impression for other employees when they learn about the dismissal, especially if someone was friends with the terminated employee. As such, a personal approach can lessen the odds of not only bad reactions from terminated employees, but also any concerns from the coworkers they left behind.

    However, an in-person approach isn’t necessarily feasible if you need to fire a remote employee. While you may not be able to sit in the same room with these people, it’s still good to break the news face-to-face through some form of video conferencing platform.

    Don’t fire employees by yourself

    It’s always a good idea to have another person in the room if at all possible. Whether it’s an HR specialist or another employee, a second person serves as a witness. Unfortunately, there’s a chance that your former employee may try and accuse you of an unjust firing. Having an HR professional in the room can help you stay on track during the dismissal process to avoid any potential issues. Even if you don’t have an HR expert available, a second person gives you another person who can attest to your side of the story in case the former employee makes any false claims during your meeting. 

    Keep it short and simple

    When it’s time to fire someone, it’s best to avoid any small talk and get straight to the point. Tell the person directly that he or she has been terminated. Make it very clear that this decision is final and give very specific feedback as to why you and the company made this decision. 

    As you may expect, this isn’t a happy occasion and the fired individual likely won’t take the news well. However, it’s important to listen to what your former employee has to say to get a better read on how he or she takes the news. Whether they’re angry, sad, shocked, or in denial, continue to repeat the message and treat them with respect.

    This is also the time to cover next steps and what will happen involving their final pay, benefits, and other details. At this point, you’ll be able to discuss any terms for severance pay, extended healthcare, or other benefits if you choose to offer them. You can also ask the individual to sign a release of liability.

    Collect any work-related items

    Depending on your business, you may have provided your former employee with equipment ranging from small supplies to extremely expensive items. You’ll want to collect any company property from them before or during the individual’s last day, unless there’s an agreement in place to allow that person to keep certain goods. These items can include:

    • Keys or key cards
    • Laptops
    • Credit card
    • Cell phone, tablet, or other mobile device
    • Company car
    • Miscellaneous office equipment

    In addition to physical items, you also need to address passwords, codes, or any other means of company access. If certain doors at your company are unlocked by keycodes or other card or keyless means, change those codes. Likewise, either you or someone else at your company should restrict any user access and change any passwords the dismissed employee may use to access your computer network.

    Likewise, your former employee likely has some personal items that he or she will want to take home as well. If you schedule the termination meeting for the end of the day when most of your other employees are gone, the dismissed employee can gather their own possessions without as much fear of embarrassment. Of course, you may want someone there to watch just to ensure that the  employee doesn’t take any company property. You can also ask terminated employees to provide a list of their personal property so that someone else can gather their possessions and return it to them there or someplace outside of work at an arranged time in the future.

    Escort them out and end on civil terms 

    After both parties have collected all the necessary items and are ready to go, it’s time to wrap up the termination meeting. Personally walk the individual to the exit and wish him or her well in the future. The dismissed individual may not be in the best mood, but it’s good to part ways on a gracious note.

    What to Do After You’ve Fired an Employee

    While the hardest part of the termination process may be over, your job isn’t quite done. There are still some very important tasks to finish that involve updating everyone else in your team and protecting yourself in case the fired employee decides that the matter isn’t over just yet.

    Inform the office

    While it may seem easier to not address the departure of an employee, it’s best to be honest to your team. If you don’t say anything, other employees may lose trust in management and start to fear that there are more dismissals in store for the future. Word will quickly spread on it’s own, so you can shape the conversation and get ahead of the gossip with a quick message.

    Fortunately, your message to the rest of your company doesn’t need to be long and complicated. Instead simply you’ll want to focus on the following:

    • That the dismissed employee no longer works at your company
    • The transition plan for handling the former employee’s departure
    • That anyone with questions should feel free to speak to you or another relevant person

    Avoid saying that the employee was fired. It’s best to just say that the person in question is no longer at the company and shift toward the future. Also, refrain from making any critiques about the former employee. These comments may not sit well for his or her former coworkers, so it’s best to move forward.

    It’s also important to determine the right method and timing for sharing this information. If you have a smaller company or the former employee workerd with a close group of associates, an in-person company meeting is best. If your company is larger or the former employee didn’t work as closely with others, a termination email should be enough to suffice. You can also hold an in-person meeting with closer associates and follow up with an company-wide email as well if you want to break the news to a certain group first.

    Reassign duties

    Part of the transition plan for handling your former employee’s departure involves addressing how that employee’s duties will be handled in the short- and long-term future. This can involve delegating who will pick up the slack until you have a more permanent solution in place. If the employee received regular emails or calls from clients or customers, have those messages forwarded to someone else in the organization.

    You also want to be careful about how you split up these duties – you don’t want to make a good worker bitter because she or she has to do the work of two people because of someone else’s dismissal. If you plan to hire someone new or put new processes in place to ease the overall burden of these duties, let your employees know. A bit of transparency will help reassure concerned employees and let them look ahead to the future instead of dwelling on the downsides of the dismissal.

    Be prepared for unemployment claims

    If the employee didn’t sign some form of liability preventing them from doing so, there’s always a chance that they may file a claim against your business. Unemployment taxes can cost your business thousands of dollars, and a claim against your company may lead to even more financial burden. 

    Fortunately, there are ways to protect your business from the claims and unruly taxes. A combination of maintaining good company policies and record keeping can improve your chances of winning unemployment claim cases. It also helps to have a dedicated company like a Professional Employer Organization on your side that can reduce your tax risks and help you fight against unwarranted claims.

    Consider a PEO for Employee Performance and Risk Management

    The firing process isn’t an enjoyable one, but it helps to have trustworthy, experience HR professionals by your side when you do need to dismiss an employee. Group Management Services can help you manage the entirety of the employee lifecycle, including employee recruiting and training, performance management, and unemployment claims management.

    Whether you’re dealing with employees, benefits, or payroll, HR management can eat up the majority of your schedule. GMS can help you take your time back while providing your business with professional services that protect and strengthen your business. Contact GMS today to talk to one of our experts about how we can help you support your business.