Immediate termination and negative impact on the other employees

Hi all,
The reason for the termination being low performance levels, is it necessary that a notice period has to be given to the employee or can he be terminated with immediate effect.
I feel that an immediate termination will have a negative impact on the other employees of the firm.
At the same time if the employee is given a notice period to be served there are high chances of him badmouthing about the management to his peers.
Please suggest!

Hi,
You have correctly said that such an employee will 'badmouth' & can imapct your oganization's business as well owing to poor performance and low productivity.
In such cases termination is the only option left but before you do that you need to ensure that you have complied with law. As HR you need to ensure that you have sufficient documentation in place citing the employee's poor performance, particularly from ther supervisor. The immediate supervisor will have to provide facts (evidence of poor performance) its only on the basis of those details such decisions can be taken. Moreover you also need to ensure that you have treated employee fairly, explained them their peformance issues and taken their acknowledgement in writing & given them enough chance to improve in the past.
In case such compliances are not met with, there's a chance that employee might drag you to court which could prove to be a nightmare for you and your organization.
Amit

Thanks Amit.
There are no documents that can prove his low performance. However,
there were many verbal notices given to him till date but it had not improved his performance.
what can be done?
Regards,
Shital

In cases of layoff or cost reduction the company has to be in line with rules as stated in their respective appointment letters.
1. The best and safest way of termination is giving a months/2months notice (ref appointment letter) so that the employee doesnt go voilent and create a bad scenario.
2. Or if you are still terminating him on the spot the company is supposed to pay him a months/ 2months basic of his salary.
It all depends on the rules stated in the respective appointment letters given to employees.
Thats the tool they can use against you,..
Rajashree

Hi Shital,
In continuation to my previous response, I shall still recommend to document his performance issues, you should ask his respective supervisor to do that and make an employee acknowledge that in writing.
The challenge here will be that this would need some time which I think should be wise investing in so as to avoid any issues later.
After arranging all supporting documents you can wait for couple of weeks and then proceed with their termination.
The ideal way to do that is to make an employee resign on his own and you can give him his reliving or experience letter there and then with F&F payment (including his notice payment) and in case the employee doesn't agrees to resign then you can show them the termination letter.
Let me know if you still have any queries.
Amit