Need Help - Employee Issues

Dear Seniors,
I have one situation here like one of our department head recommend to terminate his employee and my boss who is HR Mgr wants me to investigate the issue and come with my recommendations.
Now how do I start my investigation, whom shall I investigate coz his dep. head wants to terminate him, so whom shall I start my investigation and how do I come up with my recommendation.
Pls help.
Thx
Shaq

This is quite a tricky situation. If I were you, I would have approached the challenge like this:

1. Take out his HR file. Try to get as much information about his previous job like

his stint with different organizations,

his iimediate reporting head,his long term career goals,etc).

The idea is that before you invite him for a one-on-one, you should have done your

homework.

2. Send him a meeting invite keeping your boss in CC. This will make sure that it's

documented and secondly your boss

will not feel that you are shying away from this challenge.Takke his confirmation

and be prepared for an informal chat. Choose a topic of his interest based on his hobbies,

interest,etc.

The idea here again is to ease this person before embarking upon the tough questions.

3. Use a lot of open ended questions and leading questions. Make sure to maintain proper

eye-contact. Look for verbal indicators and his overall body language.

I am sure it will be enough for you to derive results.If possible, find out about

him from his team-members as well( extremely casually)

4. Share the detailed report with your boss.

5. Most important: Go with an open mind...have your glass empty !

All the best !

Regards,

Saif

Dear Saif,
Thank you so very much, I did exactly the same, the response that I got from you was a bit late but I really appreciate your response.
As you said it is indeed a big challenge.
Thanks once again for your support.
Regards,
Shaq

Hi,
You will have to flip the following points:
1. On what basis the dept. head intended to terminate an employee?
2. Does dept. head have a substantial reason for laying off an employee?
3. Is that there is a cause that employee performance hindering the dept objective?
Of all the above, as you told that your boss sought investigation to recommend this employee and at the same time dept. boss wanted employee to be terminated which is very diplomatic case to handle where you will have to be accountable for both so that you are a good in their minds. Instead of this, you pls. commence an investigation whether an employee can really be accused so that necessary action can be initiated.
If you want to be good in both their minds, then pls. discuss with your boss and let the employee be shifted to other dept. in stead of terminating him. By doing this, both (ur boss and dept. boss) requirement will be fulfilled. Hope this would suffice your requirement.
Regards,
Kranthi

Dear Shaq,
In my opinion it is a question of "faith". If there has been a "loss of faith" concerning the employee in question then he is better off somewhere else and explain the situation to him and if he has any sense should seperate voluntarily and start afresh elsewhere. If "faith" in the employee is not destroyed give him a second chance under some other hod who still may believe in him. In the meantime conduct your investigation to come to the truth and if the truth is such that it results in a "loss of faith" in the employee it would be mutually detrimental to continue having him in the system.
Regards,
UG