Plan for the termination meeting  - Winging a meeting with an employee you are firing is a bad idea. If you don't prepare what you're going to say to the employee, you could speak out of turn, and your comments could be the basis for a lawsuit.

• What they're going to say during the meeting

  

• What's going to happen after the meeting
• Whether the employee will be allowed to collect his belongings from his desk, or whether the company will pack them up and send them to him
• If the employee has company files at home, the manger needs to figure out how to get those files
• Have in hand the employee's final paycheck and include pay for any unused vacation
• Provide the employee with a COBRA notice so he knows how much it will cost to continue his health insurance.

Planning the details of the termination helps demonstrate respect for the employee. It shows you care enough about the employee to think about the questions and issues the employee will face.

Have two people present in the meeting other than the individual being fired. That way  if you end up in litigation, it's not one person's word against the other. It's better to have a second person from the company who can indicate exactly what was said.

Be serious and do not joke about what is going to happen and do not treat it like a cattle call. Some employers who have to do large layoffs round up employees like cattle in a conference room and tell them all at once that they're getting pink slips. This disrespectful tactic breeds ill will among the affected employees toward their former employer.

Get to the point quickly - Managers should never start a meeting with an employee in which they're going to be terminated with pleasantries. It's cruel to mislead the person about the conversation," she says. Instead, managers should cut to the chase. "We're meeting today because your position has been eliminated' or 'because we need to let you go.'"

• If the termination is due to the employee's poor performance, managers should have a line and stick to it, such as, 'We've discussed your performance several times. This job is no longer a good fit.'
• If the employee is part of a layoff motivated by economic or financial circumstances, it's best to say something simple such as, 'Your employment is being terminated due to a necessary reduction in force. The reason we have to do a reduction in force is because of the tough economic climate,' and leave it at that.

Be truthful about the reason for the termination  Managers who feel badly about having to lay off staff will sometimes try to soften the blow to the employee during the termination meeting. The manager might say, "We have to cut you, but it has nothing to do with your performance. You were a great employee, but I need to let you go, and it's completely and solely related to cost reasons".
Such non-truths become problematic when the decision to lay off the employee was in fact performance related. If that individual decides to file a lawsuit alleging he was fired because of his age, the company will respond to the claim by saying, 'You weren't fired for your age. You were fired because your performance was the lowest among the people we chose.Â’ The plaintiff will in turn respond, 'During my termination meeting, you told me my performance was great and that it had nothing to do with the reason for my termination.' That alone can make an employer liable.

Do not broadcast the termination news over social media. Today there are lawsuits and legal claims related to updates managers have posted to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, in which they disclose details of employee terminations.

Offer employees a severance agreement in return for a release of all legal claims It helps the employee because it aids in their transition and doesn't preclude them from seeking unemployment insurance. From the employer's perspective, the severance agreements are important because the employee will release the employer of all claims related to or arising out of the employment  -- if they accept the severance package. That will take care of tort claims, contract claims, discrimination claims and wrongful termination claims.