Train, Transfer, Terminate
In my second week as a project manager at Ford AV, I sat in a training session at our corporate offices where one of our senior leaders walked through how the company approaches an employee who is struggling. Train, transfer, terminate. I was surprised that termination would be discussed as part of developing people at all. It seemed harsh.
After years of leading teams, I understand the reasoning much better.
Training comes first, and it works more often than people expect. Sometimes the gap is technical. Sometimes it is time management, communication, or expectations nobody made clear. When training does not close the gap, the next question is whether the person is in the right role. I have watched capable people struggle under a level of stress, a travel schedule, or a kind of work that did not suit them, and then do well in a different seat. Helping a struggling employee move into a new role where they succeed always feels like a huge win.
The third step is the one that bothered me in that training room, and it still does. I hate giving up on people, and termination feels close to that.
I can usually tell when training has reached its limit. The recommendation is harder. Losing a job can upend someone's life, their family's finances, and their confidence. I also carry a sense of personal and professional failure when I could not help someone succeed, and it weighs more when I am the one who hired them. If I take the long view, retaining a poor performing employee does no favor for the company or the employee. That termination feels harsh but it allows the employee to start over, and hopefully to find a role that fits them.
What I have learned is that my discomfort is real, and it is not a reason to avoid the decision.
Experience has made me better at recognizing when termination is necessary. It has not made the recommendation any easier to make, and I hope it never does.