Protect Your Organization From Trash Talking Ex-Employees

Many of us have had this experience: a poor employee gets terminated and then uses any means available to them to hurt your company. Luckily, there are steps you can implement now to mitigate this risk.

Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels

According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, 72% of employees ranked “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” the most important factor in job satisfaction.  Do you know how your employees feel? If employees are unhappy, feel they are treated poorly, or disrespected, they are far more likely to badmouth your business after they leave.

What can you do to protect your company?

• When you fire an employee, make sure you provide a gracious exit. Allow them to retain their dignity.

• 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, keys so they can’t access confidential information.

• Consider a paid exit agreement covering confidentiality and non-derogatory comments. An exit agreement is a legally binding document between an employee and employer.

We recommend you not only automate onboarding to get new employees integrated into the team but also offboarding.  Make sure managers have received comprehensive training; having them dot the i's and cross the t's will help protect your company.