Eric Markowitz | Inc.com staff

Fire the Wrong People Today

Kevin Ryan has hired--and fired--plenty of people in his day. Here, the Gilt CEO explains why not firing an employee can cause a bad situation to "fester."

Kevin Ryan's General Session talk titled Hirer's Remorse at the Inc. 500 Conference.

Inc.

Kevin Ryan's General Session talk titled Hirer's Remorse at the Inc. 500 Conference.

 

"If you have a 100 person company, someone is No. 100," Kevin Ryan told the audience at the Inc. 500|5000 Conference recently. "If you have a 20 person division, someone is No. 20."

Six months ago, Ryan was tasked with hiring a new manager to oversee a division of Gilt. He gave the new manager three objectives, to be completed within the first few months. They were:

-Evaluate the people you have now and lay off the people that don't fit.
-Promote people internally.
-Maintain and retain your best people.

After six months, Ryan knew the manager hadn't built an effective team. Morale was low, and a couple of key employees left the company. Rather than giving the manager more time to solve the problem, Ryan let him go immediately.

"A bad situation will fester," he says. "It is your job as CEO to make sure those situations don't happen. You're ruining the DNA of that company…by letting it go."

Eric Markowitz reports on start-ups, entrepreneurs, and issues that affect small businesses. Previously, he worked at Vanity Fair. He lives in New York City. @EricMarkowitz