I’ve fired less than 10 people in my 20+ year professional career. Whatever the specific number, it should probably be higher. I know that I have allowed subpar employees to stick around longer than I should have, to the detriment of the team, our mission, and the employees. Firing a staff member is never easy and it comes with a fair bit of short-term turmoil for your church or organization. Even so, it’s often the best decision you could make.
Last week, we started a mini-series about how to fire an underperforming staff member. I said it was going to be three weeks, but I want to tell you about something you should do before you initiate the firing process (and it should be a process!). While rare, it is possible that an employee isn’t underperforming solely because they cannot do the job and need to be removed. There can be other factors at play and for everybody’s good, you should make sure you understand the problem as clearly as possible. To that end, I’d recommend asking yourself these six questions before moving on to the next step.
This goes back to last week’s blog, but it’s an important step. Take some personal responsibility and make sure that you have written down and clearly communicated expectations and that those expectations are as objective and measurable as possible. You want to avoid a situation where you think an employee is underperforming but they do not and you have nothing objective to point to as the deciding factor.
Sometimes an employee isn’t hitting their numbers because they have employed a strategy that isn’t working. Instead of firing the employee, you can just adjust the strategy. Now, be careful not to fall into a never-ending cycle of strategy changes if the real problem is the person executing the strategy. But for their sake and yours, at least ask this question and try to eliminate it as a possibility.
It’s possible that the employee is good and the strategy is sound, but you haven’t allocated enough resources to properly execute the strategy. Ask the employee what they would do if their budget was doubled. If they are smart and understand the strategy, they should have a nearly immediate answer to that question. More money doesn’t solve every problem, but it does solve some.
Maybe the employee lacks a professional skill that can be taught. Maybe they need to grow as a motivator or manager, maybe they need to learn how to budget and track money. Whatever the issue is, ask yourself, can they be trained to do this well? Have I given them the proper intellectual resources to get this job done?
If all else has failed and you are sure that the fault lies in the employee, the final question you should ask yourself is whether or not they could be successful in another role on the team. This question is a trap, so be very careful with it. It is far easier emotionally to not fire someone and just move them to another role, in which they will also fail. I’ve seen employees move six or seven times in an organization to try to find the right fit, and time and time again they failed in their roles. Don’t bail on doing the hard thing, but ask yourself the question. Could they crush it in another role?
Lastly, if you conclude that the employee needs to be replaced, have a clear sense of who you would replace them with. Maybe you don’t have the name of another person, but you should build a profile ahead of time, outlining specifically the gaps this employee had and how those need to be filled by the next person in the role. Maybe you didn’t realize that a certain role actually required skills that you didn’t think would be necessary. Add it to the job description so you can make sure the next hire doesn’t fail in the same ways.
That’s it, those are the questions.
Before you pull the trigger on firing someone, make sure you ask yourself these six questions and I promise, you will come to a much better conclusion.