Bored Panda reached out to Dawn Moss, the founder of “Your Interview Coach” set up in 2013 to help both candidates and hiring managers through the complexities of the recruitment and selection process. Throughout her career, Dawn has screened about 1 million CVs and interviewed over 10k candidates, and she was happy to share some insights into the procedure of firing an employee and what happens afterwards.
“It’s a less than easy process to fire someone in the U.K., both legally and ethically,” Dawn said. “In terms of the process, there are lots of factors to take into consideration; reason for dismissal, performance, capability, gross misconduct, and length of service, etc.” Although Dawn reminded us that she’s not an employment lawyer, she said that these situations can get complex.
“For a manager, it’s tough as they were the person to hire them in the first place and I can imagine there are a number of emotions attached to letting someone go. In my experience, most managers didn’t like getting to the point of firing someone and most have probably supported the person to get up to speed prior to starting the dismissal process,” Dawn explained and added that this is why the hiring process is absolutely essential to get right the first time. She also noted that the amount of management and HR time it takes managing a poor performer is draining.
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Having said that, it’s important to note that there’s definitely a right and a wrong way to fire an employee. “There are companies that don’t follow any process and unfortunately, if an employee has served less than 24 months they cannot usually file for unfair dismissal. There are some exceptions, if an employee feels they are being dismissed because of a protected characteristic, for example,” Dawn explained.
“However, if it’s performance-related or a personality clash, it can be fairly easy to dismiss someone without any warning. Most reputable companies will want to follow a structured process. As mentioned previously, most managers I’ve worked with want to support the individual first and dismissal is a last resort,” the career coach concluded.
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