People Management

Have you ever had to terminate an employee's employment? Can you discuss the steps you took prior to making that decision?

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Expert Answer

Anonymous

4.6Exceptional
Creating performance review document
  • I began by creating performance document which contained information about the review and evidences of not meeting expectations consistently. 4 releases out of 6 got delayed in 1 quarter.
  • Added information about the concrete feedbacks shared in 1:1’s and in monthly reviews.
Discussion with HR
  • Data points which I had gathered showed that the responsibilities were not met on a consistent basis even after specific feedbacks were shared to work on the areas of improvements.
  • We both agreed on that the role needsadjusting of processes for the team proactive risk identification and mitigation effective communication
  • We had a PIP policy in place for low performers. We discussed and decided to put the EM on PIP for a month
PIP plan
  • For PIP discussion I started to identify, timelines, review process and specific areas where I want EM to show improvement as per the expectations form the role.One check metric was defined that pulse rating of the team should not drop.
  • Got it reviewed with HR again to ensure it is as per the company policy.
  • Expectation setting : Scheduled a meeting with the EM  and had a concise discussion about the PIP. What are the expectations, the review process and outcome.This was clearly communicated that this situation will be handled with professionalism and privacy. The objective is to make sure the EM works as per the expectations of the role and I as the leader of the group and the company wants EM to succeed.
Reviews
  • Setup a biweekly review meeting as we discussed along involving HR, EM and myself.
  • We connected after 2 weeks, we could see that the EM made some progress but overall was under a lot of pressure and still there was gaps.
  • I saw a high risk of PIP goal not getting met. After this I started working on a backup plan to identify who can take over the team instantly and planned for a replacement [as this was a different stream of work] . This EM had worked on this product during kickoff stage and had big overlap with stakeholders.
  • We had one last meeting where the goals were discussed and we found the EM to be short on delivery, stakeholder mgmt and effectively navigating team. I communicated the shortcomings and the process forward. Our HR team had a process of asking employees to resign in such situations, so that they can maintain the dignity. EM was relieved on the same day and was provided last day confirmation mail and exp letter. Other info about dues and Full and final was communicated by HR.
After exit plan:
  • Setup a meeting with a manager and seeking manager’s input about if EM can fill in for the time being on the day of exit of previous Manager
  • Having a discussion within leadership team of my group and communicating about this decisions to all
  • Setup a call the next day with the team and introduced the EM who has decided to step in and help navigate the team.
  • Worked closely with the EM about the team matters to not overwhelm EM

Anonymous

4.2Exceptional
Creating performance review document and added evidence of not meeting expectations on a consistent basis.
  • Added information about the feedbacks shared
  • Goals created along with the timelines
  • Evidence of non compliance
Discussed with HR about the employee and got inputs. If allowed by company policy put employee on PIP.
PIP discussion to have info about goal, timelines, review and clear communication about the outcome if the goals are not met.
If still non compliance, work with HR to discuss about severance if applicable, option to provide guardian leave, or handling the termination letter.
Scheduled a meeting with the employee with HR present and clearly communicating about the job termination and the benefits being provided, placement support, insurance, severance etc.

Anonymous

3.6Strong
At Centercard, As a director of tech, I was growing my team and hired a Sr. Dev. While this person had right technical chops, was not a team player, He had arguments with team members and PMs. Would not collobrate and acccept mistakes - this create a toxic environment. Despite my effort to choach in 1:1 and warnings that he should course correct, he would not change his behavior - by providing examples on where he could be more collobrative insted of combative. Inspite of this he did not change his beahvior, I gathered feedback from my team mates and PM and presented the facts to my manager and HR, it was decided to let him go.I had to do a retrosepctive and found that we had indexed heavily on technical skills in the interview process, I proposed that we have a behavior round interviews so that we choose one with right technical skills and culture fit.

Anonymous

3.4Strong
We have an individual in our team whose performance was not up to standard from the beginning. It was identified and I discussed with him about a 3 month plan to improve and gave weekly targets. I closely monitored the performance and in the end it was satisfactory. So I let him continue. 

A year later, went through similar unsatisfactory performance again. This time an update was made to the algorithm during my long leave and it was terrible. Instead of rolling back the update a decision was made to stop the algorithm. When I came back, I got to know about it and reverted the change and fixed the problem. This time I went to HR and gave him a plan to improve. This time I noticed  the performance was good only when we are behind him. 

Lastly we ran into another situation and a PIP was initiated and later we terminated the employee. 

Anonymous

3.4Strong
Yes. I did. That should be cautious decision. I took a look at their code review comments, code contributions, the program that he led, Quality of deliverables, peer feedback, previous work history, feedback from previous managers and made decisions based on it.
  • Have you ever had to terminate an employee's employment? Can you discuss the steps you took prior to making that decision?
  • Can you walk me through a scenario in which you had to terminate an employee? What was your process for evaluating the situation and making the decision to terminate?
  • Tell me about a time you needed to lay someone off. How did you approach communicating the termination to the employee and the rest of the team? What steps did you take to ensure a smooth transition for the team and minimize disruption?
  • Have you ever been in a situation where you had to fire someone? Can you reflect on what you learned from the experience and what you would do differently in the future?
  • When was the last time you needed to downsize your team? How did you maintain a positive and professional demeanor throughout the situation?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to have a difficult conversation with an employee. How did you handle it?
  • Have you ever had to deal with an employee who consistently underperformed? How did you address the situation?
  • What measures do you take to ensure that employees are meeting their goals and objectives?
  • In your opinion, what are the most challenging aspects of managing a team? Can you give an example?
  • Can you describe a time when you had to make a tough decision that affected your team or organization? How did you go about making that decision?
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Interview question asked to ML Engineering Managers, Data Science Managers, Engineering Managers and other roles interviewing at Spinny, SAP, Meta and others: Have you ever had to terminate an employee's employment? Can you discuss the steps you took prior to making that decision?.