Policy Book Termination of Employment Company Manual

4. Exit interview

As the decision to terminate the employment relationship has been made and even set in motion, the employee is asked to participate in an exit interview. This interview is generally held throughout the last days the employee spends in the organization and it focuses on retrieving feedback related to the reasons as to which the employee has chosen to leave; his feelings and opinions regarding the time he spent in the company; the team, the managerial team, the company policy and so on. "Ultimately, the goal of using EIS is to determine the reasons for company turnover, help to identify training and development needs, create strategic planning goals, and identify those areas in which changes need to be made" (Knouse, Beard, Pollard and Giacalone, 1996).

5. Return of company property

Aside from the exit interview, there are two more aspects to consider -- the return of company property and the severance pay. Throughout the employment period, the employee could have been presented with the ability to use company property, such as an automobile, a laptop, a telephone and so on. As the employment relationship comes to an end, the individual is asked to return this property to the organization. It is expected of them to return the property in conditions similar to those observed when the property was received, or at least in good state, without damages which cannot be attributed to the natural process of amortization (Schroeder, 1999).

6. Transfer / relocation

The transfer or relocation implies the termination of the employment contract, or its major modification. In this order of ideas, the termination can occur as the company or the individual decides to become relocated. Examples in this sense are common in the outsourcing community as firms move form one region to the other in search of cost efficiencies.

The major changes in employment partnerships can occur when the firm decides to transfer or relocate an individual. This can for instance be transferred to a different position, through either promotion or demotion, or he can be delegated to occupy a position in one of the company's foreign offices. Transfers aboard are extremely complex and challenging, and require the adequate training of the individuals, both technical, as well as cultural, and also the integration of the family (McGough, 2003).

7. Severance pay

The severance pay refers to the benefits an employee receives upon termination of employment within a firm. A general rule regarding severance pay cannot be established and the existence, as well as amount, depends specifically on the nature of the individual contracts between the firm and the employees, or the union to which he belongs. "Based on data collected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, severance pay and advance notice of layoffs and plant shutdowns seem to get negotiated into collective bargaining agreements whenever there is a strong demand for these provisions by workers and their unions and when firms are willing to supply them. Depending on negotiated settlements, the amount of advance notice days and severance pay varies among plant-union pairs and among firms as well" (Pita, 1996).

References:

Dell'Omo, G.G., 1997, Managerial use of dismissal: organizational-level determinants, Personal Psychology, Vol. 50, No. 4

Glant, T., 2002, Against all odds: Vira B. Whitehouse and Rosika Schwimmer in Switzerland, American Studies International, Vol. 40, No. 1

Knouse, S.B., Beard, J.W., Pollard, H.G., Giacalone, R.A., 1996, Willingness to discuss exit interview topics: the impact of attitudes toward supervisor and authority, Journal of Psychology, Vol. 130, No. 3

McGough, L.S., 2003, Starting over: the heuristic of family relocation decision making, St. John's Law Review, Vol. 77, No. 2

Mollica, K.A., Gray., B., 2001, When layoff survivors become layoff victims: propensity to litigate, Human Resources Planning, Vol. 24, No. 1

Pita, C., 1996, Advance notice and…