Should You retrain or terminate?

The initial instinct when being a manager is to fire someone, or several people, if you spot an issue or are just not making the profits you would like to.

It's crucial to keep in mind that, depending on the situation, firing might not always be the wisest course of action—both emotionally and monetarily. Ideally, you would have completed the performance review questions stage before discharging an employee in order to record adequate grounds and explanation for the dismissal.

Think about this: terminating an employee involves more than just waving them off. You will have to pay, sometimes a significant amount.

There can be a lot of expenses involved in firing someone, such as paying your management to train a new hire or giving overtime to your current staff. Not to mention the expenses associated with finding, hiring, and training a new employee, almost everyone in an organization will need some time to set things back in order following a termination.

When you're training a new hire, it may mean that your existing staff members' focus is diverted, which lowers productivity.

So what’s the solution? Before you fire anyone, gauge whether or not your organization would benefit most from their firing, or instead from a focus on retraining that employee.

If you’re willing to retrain a problem employee, you may find there are tremendous benefits in terms of cost.

Yes, you have to invest in the coach and the training, but you don’t have to pay the costs, both time and money, that are required to recruit and hire a completely new employee.

Having a Talent Coaching Manager provides a tremendous opportunity to retain and retrain an employee in a way that’s time and cost-efficient.

The Coach can also utilize other learning paths which saves you time and money, so that you can determine, in a few weeks’ or months’ time whether or not the coaching and training has had an impact on the performance of that employee. When you’re willing to put in this kind of time and effort you can reduce your turnover, your associated costs, and you may find you have a loyal long-term employee who feels like you were willing to put in the time and effort to help him or her succeed and thrive.

With all of the above being said, there are some situations that simply warrant a firing. Not every employee is going to succeed, even with comprehensive re-training. So how do you know what the right decision is?

Generally speaking, training and development might be the best course of action if you have an individual who is open to making adjustments and accepts accountability for their own errors. Employees who are eager to succeed and are prepared to accept responsibility for their mistakes frequently have the best of intentions; it's just that they may not have had the right guidance and support from the start.

However, it might be necessary to fire an employee if they consistently refuse to accept responsibility for their actions, appear unwilling to admit their knowledge or skill gaps, or require strong prodding to make improvements.

Furthermore, no amount of training or development will likely make someone an asset to your firm if their difficulties stem from hard-to-teach traits like weak work ethics, lack of integrity or low morals, even if they are determined to improve. Best of Luck!