How to Follow your Termination Template and Use the Termination Meeting to lower your legal risk.

The termination meeting is an opportunity for an employer to minimize risk. Your termination template should include specific elements of the termination meeting.

• As an initial matter, you should carefully consider the personnel conducting layoffs. Someone with a direct supervisory relationship over the worker is advisable and a third party witness should attend the meeting.
• Employees should be given their final paychecks, severance, and any applicable notifications during the termination meeting so they are not walking away "empty-handed".
• Separation agreements and releases should be distributed and signed (if possible).
• Additionally, it is a good idea to conduct terminations earlier in the week to give employees an opportunity to file for unemployment and begin considering other employment alternatives.

Modern Business Associates frequently deals with HR issues. As a Professional Employee Organization, our clients rely on us to help them effectively deal with these kinds of topics including designing processes for terminations and constructing a termination template.