Do you have a low-performing person who cannot be switched or removed from your department (or from the organization) because the paperwork hasn’t been prepared? Perhaps they are still there because obligatory conversations have yet to take place? Or what happens when what that person has done might not qualify as a fire-able offense? If you are struggling with any of these scenarios, you need to serve notice to HR!

Why “Check the Box” Doesn’t Work

Too often HR takes a “check the box” approach. Firing low-performing employees may be delayed or thwarted simply because some box hasn’t been checked yet or there isn’t really a suitable box to describe the problems these employees present.

With this approach, HR departments can start to see people as a collection of tasks completed or skills demonstrated. That attitude is communicated to—and frequently adopted by—operating managers. Pretty soon discussions revolve around boxes to be checked rather than the people themselves. The “human” in Human Resources goes missing.

Employees are people, of course, and part of a living system in your organization. Some participate and share among colleagues, add synergy to the system, and multiply the outcomes that the system is established to create. Meanwhile, other employee may diminish the performance of the whole.

Asking an employee simply if they accomplished a task (yes or no) or if they fulfilled the role set out by the job description seems fair and equitable. But this approach often misses key intangibles—both positive contributions and negative side effects.

Sometimes a person can do everything the job requires, and yet how they interact and show up has a debilitating effect on the team. In these instances, HR shouldn’t just show you the checked boxes that make firing impossible. Their hands aren’t tied, at least not in a right-to-work state like Minnesota.

What Can Managers Do?

A friend of mine recently did equine work with his team. The team went into a ring and was told to get a horse moving outside of the group in a clockwise direction. The team formed a circle quickly, and the horse reacted to their encouragements. It began to walk around the team in a clockwise direction—until it got to one particular team member. The horse suddenly appeared confused and stopped moving. When the team met to discuss the exercise later, they all said this is exactly what happens at work. Things just stop at this team member and pile up and become chaotic.

As a leader, you only have two choices when it comes to a low-performing team member like the horse-stopping employee: train or fire. If you’re unsure, ask yourself three questions:

1. Is the employee capable of doing the work? 2. Is the employee motivated to change? 3. Do you have the time and resources to develop this person?

If you answer anyone of these “No,” the answer is fire! The answer is not: “Let’s wait six months so that they can go through HR’s box-checking process.”

Treat people as people, give them clear expectations, and hold them accountable. Don’t assume that working for you is the best thing in the world when it may not be for them. If it was, they would likely be showing up differently.

Were it not for fear of lawsuits, organizations would likely fire more employees. Lawsuits are a legitimate concern, of course, but business leaders should also fear the collateral damage and costs that low-performing employees incur. Once people are flagged as low-performers or bad fits, very rarely do they reverse course. It’s often better to pay them to leave than it is pay them to stay and drag others down.

Bear in mind, too, that HR sometimes fight to keep people in their jobs partly because of the key performance indicators that HR are measured by—turnover rate, mis-hires, employment comp levels. These are certainly important metrics, but not at the expense of the synergistic lift of the right team working together. Getting the wrong person off the bus is as important—and sometimes more important—than getting the right one on.

Bottom Line

If your HR department is not getting the wrong people off your team quickly enough, serve notice! HR departments shouldn’t be a combative or obstructionist presence. They should help leaders form and maintain strong, cohesive, and high-performing teams.