Letting an employee go is a manager’s biggest headache. When you have to fire someone, there are usually clear signs that a person is a bad fit at the company, and it makes showing them the door a little easier: Maria is consistently not meeting her sales quota; David has been reprimanded for bad conduct but it is only getting worse; you have gotten one too many customer or vendor complaints about Martin. Then there are those times when it is harder to do the dirty work of terminating someone.
Let’s say you have three great employees, but you have to let one of them go. Unlike with firing, it is not their performance that is the problem. Maybe there is just not enough work to go around, or the company is tightening its budget belt or restructuring. There can be lots of reasons.
All that matters is that it is down to you to make the cold, hard decision of axing a person you would love to keep on board. How’s that headache now? We are here to help you tackle that trickiest of questions: Which employee do you lay off?
Consider these 6 points as you work through your decision:
Never Lay Off the Best Performer
If your company cannot support the work of all three great employees, experts would advise you to let the weakest performer go. Sometimes managers try to employ compassionate logic here, thinking that a top performer will have an easier time finding a new job and terminating that person instead.
Here is why this is a bad approach. No matter what, your goal is to keep making your company better, and top performers do just that.
If you let one of them go, the remaining high performers will begin to get nervous about their security and start looking for other jobs. Now, your decision threatens to weaken the broader organization. Do not do it.
See Which One Has the Least Support
You are probably not alone in deciding which employee needs to be laid off. As you discuss this with other senior managers, notice which employees seem to have the most advocates and which one the least. Measure the overall show of support for each candidate, and it will help you avoid letting your own bias be the only factor in the decision.
Consider Who is More Adaptable
Eliminate one person and it likely means that the remaining two workers will have to absorb the extra workload. And with business being what it is today (read: constant crazy state of change), it is always better to have versatile employees who can adapt deftly to shifting duties. Which two of the three employees are most likely to adjust well to new and more responsibilities?
Look at Skill Set Strength
Take a good, hard look at the skills of all three workers. How many overlap? Single out the two people who possess skills that are hardest to find or that your company needs the most now. Alternatively, look ahead and think about which skills might not be needed as the company evolves.
Take Service Time into Account
When doing wide-scale layoffs, companies sometimes use the “last hired, first fired” method, whereby employees with the shortest tenure are let go first. It is an accepted measure of fairness and a less messy way to sort out who gets the axe and who keeps a job.
This approach might also help you make your decision easier. In addition to fairness, consider that longer-serving employees have probably worked under different structures at the company and can perhaps adapt easier to the ebb and flow of business.
Run Through the Costs of the Termination Package
If you have run through this list and still cannot make a decision on which one do you lay off, start looking at the money. Find out the exact value of each of the three employees’ severance packages – in some countries, laws require termination packages to be a certain number of months’ salary based on length of employment. You may just have to select the employee who costs your company the least to let go.
Lay off decisions are loaded with emotion, unless you are a robot. You cannot deny that you are changing someone’s life when you sack them. It especially stings when you like the employee you are about to terminate.
Nevertheless, do your best to avoid taking the person’s age, gender or personal circumstances into consideration, unless you are legally obliged to do so. The more you stick to factors that are in the interest of the company’s success, the easier that tough part of a manager’s job will be.
About the Author:
Kate Rodriguez is a freelance marketing copywriter based in Munich. She has over 20 years of professional experience in public and private organizations. A former international trade analyst for the U.S. government, she also worked as a university career coach, specializing in international career search. Most recently, she was employed at Experteer as a customer service agent and online marketing manager.
