This must be one strange discussion to have. Not many people actually think of being fired or worse, firing a person who was recruited with high hopes. Isn't it. But one of the biggest challenge human resources (HR) face is to terminate someone's services. It is even more difficult when you are part of any usual Indian organisation, which is essentially owner-driven and most decisions are driven by the promoters. If you own the company, the humanity quotient starts bothering you - Should you fire the person or give one last chance that has been given many times or ask for resignation without getting affected by sadness or shock? There are more questions - Is there a cost of delaying the action? Are we building a humane organisation and do not want to take away the livelihood of people?

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Even telling someone to resign is an emotionally daunting task. Telling an employee to go is made more difficult when it is based on non-performance and the person in question has not violated any rules or policy of office. One more point to be considered here is that may be the person needs a bit more help and will turn around. Let us find a way to solve this problem.

Gather complete information: If the person is not your direct reportee, then it is mandatory to check records of performance from the day the person joined. Sometimes, a line manager may not be very supportive. An unsupportive boss becomes biased and, at times, myopic, and puts people on the back burner. If an otherwise performing individual has gone down in the past few months, a through check will help in making a justified decision. Always ask yourself, "If this person had put up resignation, would you have worked on retention at all?"

Supportive and straightforward approach: The employee in question needs to be given enough time to come to terms of being fired. Have several rounds of discussion and clearly mention the shortfalls every time. Termination should never be a shock, if the employee has not broken the code of conduct. To be asked to resign is a breach of dignity and despite being a burden or self-nonperformance, people feel cheated. This needs a careful and diplomatic approach. That also means you need to create a base for the same. For giving last chance, I have used a Three Parameters technique many times. Verbally, give a month's time to the employee in question and set very clear three parameters of performance. Send a mail about agreed upon parameters and take consent in writing.

Peer input: When a person becomes a liability, the first batch of suffering goes to peers. They have major issues dealing with such a person and have no power to fire the colleague. Take a closer look of employees who are good connects to your runaway hero. There are three kinds of possibilities. Either there is a lobby formation happening or a genuine performer has reduced or worse, a pain-in-the-neck employee giving a hard time to good people. Take unofficial feedback. Most people love to vent out so chances are, you will have a good reservoir of information.

Don't delay decision: Procrastination is a sin. Once you have taken all the necessary actions and are clear about the next step, do not delay. Leaders' inaction can make them lose entire credibility. If the person in question does not have hopes of developing necessary skill-set desired for future business needs, then let it not detriment the department's morale and set a wrong example. If possible, write a neutral positive reference letter or assure of the same if asked from possible future employers.

Organisations need to push on building a culture of freedom and responsibility. If a cog in the wheel is square when other cogs fit in well and are round, mostly the square is going to fall off. You can try to chisel the square into a round shape to match and move with a clear conscience that it still may not work. Let it go then. It is better to say genuine good-byes than deadlock and fake hugs.

The writer is strategic advisor and premium educator with Harvard Business Publishing