Usefully Employed

Not a piece of advice I enjoy giving to an employer, but this is a common query I receive:

My [insert job title] has been embezzling money / stealing from me / running a competing business on the internet / sexually assaulting the receptionist. I’d like to make him redundant by reorganising the department - how do I start the consultation process?

For some reason, employers are scared witless by the idea of going down a disciplinary process where you accuse someone of something, do an investigation, find out it’s true, sack them, and put “Dismissed for gross misconduct” on reference requests for ever more. Many would much rather go through a bland impersonal redundancy process, where everyone tries to save face. The fact that we provide them with easy to use template letters and a schedule for it helps too.
This is foolish in the extreme - if a person’s behaviour warrants it, and the procedure’s right, then dismissal for gross misconduct is the best way. Employers only get in trouble where they’re disingenuous - a smart tribunal easily sees through a succession of minuted meetings and processes to the real underlying reasons.