How to Make Sure Fired Employees Don't Badmouth Your Company

Many of us have had this happen: a poor employee gets terminated and then uses any means available to them to hurt your company.

What can you do to protect your company? Your chances of having to deal with a disgruntled ex-employee will be significantly reduced if you use these tips:

• According to one study, 72% of employees rated “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” the biggest influence on job satisfaction.  Do you know how your employees feel?

• Make sure you provide employees a gracious exit rather than showing them the door. Treating people with dignity and respect, whatever the circumstances of their termination, is an unbreakable rule.

• To protect your company’s information, have employees sign a confidentiality agreement when hired, and remind them this agreement lives on after they leave. 

• When an employee leaves, quickly change passwords and recover computers, phones, and keys so they can’t access confidential information.

• Consider a paid exit agreement where they get paid in exchange for not posting on social media or disparaging your company in any way.

We recommend you not only automate onboarding to get new employees well integrated into the team, but also offboarding.  Making sure managers or HR dot all the i's and cross the t's will help protect your company.

If you need help setting up your onboarding or offboarding programs, contact us now!

Further reading: A Guide to Free Speech at Work - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3