Managing Dismissals

Many employers believe that employees with less than one year’s service can be fired for any reason. In actual fact, this is a very dangerous belief because there are over 20 grounds where an employee can bring an unfair dismissal complaint where they have less than a year’s service.

How To Handle Dismissals For Poor Performance

Dismissing staff in this day and age can be fraught with difficulty! The key to a good dismissal is timing, clear communication and good documentation.

Below are some basic steps to follow:


· Use probationary periods well. Diarise when a probationary period is due to expire and conduct a review. It is far better to deal with a poor performer during this time than to ignore it until the employee gets their year in service. It will save you money and will mean that the employee can get a more suitable, enjoyable job sooner.

· Where employees have got a year or more service, the business must decide whether it has the resources to follow the safest but often lengthy, performance management procedural route or whether a quicker option is preferable, although often more risky.

· Adopting a fair procedure is paramount. From October, new statutory minimum procedures will come into force making this a crucial requirement.

· You will need to be able to demonstrate that a fair procedure has been followed. To do this it is a good idea to conduct annual or half-year appraisal. You can’t expect an employee to perform to your expected level, if they have no idea what that level is! An appraisal should not then contain any nasty surprises and should be an opportunity for 2-way, open and honest communication.

· Creating a paper trail during the whole process is crucial to allow you to sufficiently demonstrate that you have followed procedures correctly. Tribunals will want to see minutes of meetings, details of warnings and written objectives. Without proper documentation, you could be left high and dry!

· With written objectives in place, you must also ensure that you monitor their progress to ensure you are aware whether these objectives are being met. If they are not being met then you will need to act.

· To assist staff to meet their objectives, you will need to show that you have given the adequate support and training to enable them to do so.

· Finally, if you think that there is a chance your employee may go off sick, you may decide to ditch the technically perfect performance dismissal and opt for the ‘doing a deal’ approach. If you take this approach however, always assume that the off the record chat may be disclosable. In these circumstances it is always advisable to use a compromise agreement.

Should you require further information or need an expert opinion in relation to any of the issues raised here, we will be delighted to assist.