Key Metrics for Measuring the Ethics of

Your Termination Process

 Terminating an employee is a sensitive process that should be approached with care and
respect. Your HR team probably has procedures in place to ensure that employees are fired
in an ethical way. But how do you actually measure the success of that? These metrics can
help you determine how well you’re sticking to ethical termination practices.

Firings that End in Conflict Measure Your Termination Policy

1 How often do terminated employees lash out with
violence or file a lawsuit against your organization?
You might be firing them without justifiable cause,
failing to give them chances to fix problems, ignoring
behavioral red flags, or treating them disrespectfully
during the termination process. However, this metric
might not indicate your ethicality, as some people
might lash out regardless due to the stress of
termination.
2 Ethical companies have policies in place for terminating
employees for and without cause and for downsizing.
Do you follow these policies to the letter for every
employee termination, no matter their length of service,
position, or department? Keep track when policies are
and aren't followed to crack down on potentially
unethical firings.

Turnover Rate
3 Does your company have a high turnover rate? If
your termination process is viewed as unjust,
confusing, or disrespectful by employees, they
might find a new position elsewhere before you can
fire them. If the high turnover is due to firings, you
could be terminating employees without strong
cause or without offering opportunities for
improvement before termination.
 Turnover Statistics
4 The number of terminated employees isn’t the only metric that
reveals whether or not you’re ethical. Are many terminated
employees from one department or under one manager? Do a large
percentage of them belong to a marginalized group (e.g. immigrants,
people of color, women, differently abled, etc.)? If so, you might have
unchecked bias or other factors leading to unethical firings.

Number of Employee Referrals

5 How often do current employees refer potential candidates to
fill open positions? If they saw a coworker go through an
unethical termination process, they won’t want to refer a friend
or family member to work at your organization and potentially
experience the same thing.

Number of Times Employees Were Blind-

6 Sided
For an ethical termination, the day of the firing should
not be the first time the employee hears there’s a
problem (unless they committed a crime or put others
in extreme danger). Do you always create a
performance improvement plan with the employee Any single HR incident is a risk.
before firing them? Do you offer them the resources Streamline your intake and
and support they need to improve? It’s worth tracking reporting with -Sight case
www.i-sight.com
how many employees felt blind-sided by their firing. management.
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