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Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?

Written by: Lee Lister

Article Overview: You hired a new member of staff and made the mistake of not conducting an immediate background check. They seemed so nice and looked like they would be a good fit in your business but now you are having second thoughts and need to get rid of them quick. How could you have avoided this and more importantly get rid of them?

Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?

You hired a new member of staff and made the mistake of not conducting an immediate background check. They seemed so nice and looked like they would be a good fit in your business but now you are having second thoughts and need to get rid of them quick. How could you have avoided this and more importantly get rid of them?

Lesson 1 – Did you take references and do a background check before you hire staff. But you know that now don’t you? This would have probably weeded out most of the undesirable employees. Take references over the telephone if feasible as many people prefer not to put in writing what they are happy to intimate vocally.

Lesson 2 - Are they are on a period of training, trial period etc? If so they have clearly failed and you can ask them to leave. If not then this is very important. Make sure that all new employees undertake a trial period that includes training of some sort. If they are unable to complete the appropriate training then clearly they are unsuitable. Similarly a trial period allows you both to ensure that they are suitable fit for your company and will enjoy working for you.

Lesson 3 - Have you gone through a period of induction? If not - you should do so and use this time to clearly set out the rules and your expectations of them and what they should expect from your business. Once you have shown them where everything is, what documents to use, who everyone is and how your company is structured things should be a little easier. This time should also include giving them a staff handbook that holds all the relevant information plus the legal documentation such as Health & Safety that you have to provide.

Lesson 4 – Did you give them a mentor who could train them on the job and answer any questions they may have? If not – this saves a whole pile of problems.

You should first of all put your employee through all of the above to give them the benefit of the doubt. They may be feeling quite lost and not sure what is expected of them. If you still have a bad employee after all this then it is time to get rid of them by whatever legal means are open to you.

If you have to give her warnings etc (UK and some of Europe) then do this every time they behave poorly. Offering training at every point and making sure that they have all the resources and assistance to improve – after all they might not be a lost cause.

If you can fire them in other ways – as in some USA States then the time to bid them farewell has surely come.

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Article Tags: background check, benefit of the doubt, health safety, induction, job, legal documentation, lesson 3, mentor, mistake, new member, second thoughts, staff handbook, trial period



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