We talk a lot about providing training to employees, usually in the context of preventing harassment and discrimination. In addition to this training, hopefully your employees are getting good training on how to perform their job skills. We have all been in that situation where, despite training and refresher training, an employee is simply not performing the job well.
It can be difficult to terminate an employee both because of the time that you have invested in training them, but also the human component that it is tough to see someone lose his or her job. However, in the long run, keeping a marginally performing employee costs more than terminating them and finding a good performer. Indeed, the cost to morale is one that is hard to quantify. The fact is that the longer you have an underperforming employee in a position, the more that other employees will have to pick up the slack. This drains your resources but also creates resentment amongst the staff who are expected to pick up extra duties.
The following shows us that sometimes no matter how much training you provide, some people are just not the right fit for their positions. After working with the employee, you just have to finally make the decision to part ways.