Terminating employees ranks high on the list of most-dreaded tasks for human resources managers. The decision to end the employment relationship is a tough one, unless there's a clear-cut reason to remove the employee from the company premises. Under normal circumstances, when a human resources manager terminates an employee, she's affecting the lives of not just the employee but the employee's family as well. Employee terminations also affect current employees. With so much at stake, it's no wonder that a human resources manager charged with terminating an employee will struggle with the ethical dilemmas that some terminations present.
Passing on the Task
Some human resources managers so dislike the task of terminating employees that they talk others into doing the deed, even when there is solid justification for the employee discharge. A human resources manager who isn't capable of enforcing workplace policies and realizing that violations lead to termination may need to consider another occupation that doesn't require handling difficult situations. On the other hand, many human resources managers refuse to terminate an employee based on their commitment to business ethics and principles.
HR Relationship with Executive Leadership
A constant struggle exists within some organizations where the human resources leader isn't a member of the executive leadership team. Human resources strategy doesn't appear to be of utmost concern for some executive leadership teams that are far more concerned about profitability -- they don't understand how valuable human capital is for the company's revenue and success. When that happens, ethical differences can create division among human resources operations and the executive management. Human resources generally is concerned with the level of employee satisfaction as a predictor of corporate success. Companies that embrace this human resources concept are counted among the more progressive organizations.
Ethical differences also factor into whether an employee should rightfully be terminated for reasons related to employee performance. When an employee's performance is borderline, the directive given to human resources may be to fire the employee. The human resources manager, on the other hand, may believe borderline performance should be subject to a structured improvement program. The decision to invest in an employee's performance or simply terminate an employee poses a major ethical dilemma for many human resources professionals.
A human resources manager typically is responsible for managing diversity, and diversity based on factors other than those contain in civil rights laws sometimes form the reason for terminating an employee who doesn't fit. These factors might include personality, work style and other attributes that have nothing to do with an employee's job qualifications, but nonetheless, are important to employers who want to create a homogeneous workforce. Federal and state laws prohibiting workplace discrimination and harassment clearly state that employment decisions based on factors such as race, sex, national origin or religion are illegal. Still, some companies are alleged to engage in practices that involve termination based on those factors. The ethical dilemma of terminating employees based on discrimination is one that many human resources managers face on a regular basis.
Termination and Severance
Offering a severance package is a process human resources managers use to soften the blow of termination and provide the discharged employee with the means to support himself during a period of unemployment. The ethical issue present here is the severance agreement itself. Many severance agreements contain a clause that requires the employee to agree that he will not raise any future claims of wrongful discharge. The typical severance agreement essentially asks the employee to waive his civil rights. It's a standard practice. However, human resources managers and anyone else who reads civil rights laws knows that it's inadvisable and unethical to have anyone sign away her civil rights. Human resources managers face an ethical dilemma in presenting a severance agreement that violates an individual's rights.
- Society for Human Resource Management: Exploring the Ethicality of Firing Employees Who Blog; Sean Valentine; 2010
- Stybel Peabody & Associates: Questions Directors Should be Asking About Employee Termination Programs?
- American Society for Association Executives: Ethics in the Workplace; Joshua Joseph; October 2000
- Aftermarket Insider: Termination; June 2008
- Maduff & Maduff: Severance Agreements
- U.S. Equal Employee Opportunity Commission: Understanding Waivers of Discrimination Claims in Employee Severance Agreements; 2009