Termination Form

Conducting extensive employee investigations before termination is so important because a court can use all of your documentation, or lack thereof, if your employee decides to file a wrongful termination suit.

If you do not have enough documentation or properly recorded documentation, you can not build a strong case to back up your termination decision. Remember, it is up to you to prove your case. Without the evidence documentation provides, you will have a difficult time doing this.

As a result, you might find yourself paying damage charges or stuck with an employee that you don’t want to keep on board – or both.

Termination forms are useful whether you need to write a termination letter or to write up an incident for the employee's permanent file. In either case, you must understand the form is a legal document. If you eventually fire an insubordinate, incapable employee, that individual may retaliate against the company by filing a wrongful termination lawsuit. Likely a judge will review this form and if not done properly the court can use it against your company. This brief article gives some tips on how to complete an employee termination correctly.

Keep Your Termination Form Short and to the Point

When you complete this form, keep it brief. Usually all you need is one page or less. Of course, there are some rare occasions when there is an exception to this rule. You must have a compelling reason to make the letter longer than a page. If you find that you need to include more details, then you include attachments.

Keeping your termination form short shows the recipients you respect their time. The first recipient, the employee in question, needs a brief account of his or her behavioral problems. Do not expect your employee to wade through a five-page document to find out what they have done wrong. Another recipient is your management. Since most businesspeople are busy, they do not like to read anything over one page. If your termination form is long, management will likely place it in a pile to read later, or maybe never. This is an important document and they need to know what is going on. If you end up in a wrongful termination suit, the third recipient, the judge is not going to appreciate going through multiple pages of business jargon. He, or she, will see the company as ineffectively communicating to this employee. This will work to the employee's advantage.

Even though the form is short, you must still include all the important information. Keep the letter factual and to the point. Briefly describe the reasons for termination. Then list the employee's infractions with dates. Also include any behaviors or tasks you expected the employee to perform to fix their problem. Instead of describing these incidents in detail, create attachments. This can be as simple as including the employee's written and verbal warnings. You can then refer to these attachments by name whenever you are writing your letter.

Finally make sure your wording is clear. The language should be simple and straightforward so the person reading it understands your message. Take time to imagine the recipient is sitting directly across from you and that you are explaining the letter to them. Being straightforward like this in your termination form will help them know exactly why they are receiving this letter and how they are to deal with it.

When you have finished the termination form, it helps to read it out loud so you can hear the words and make sure that it sounds right. Make sure that you check its spelling and grammar. It will reflect poorly on you if the final copy has obvious grammar and spelling mistakes because it looks sloppy and unprofessional.

Our guidebook for employee termination. Step by step. With termination form, letter and procedure.