The new year is in full swing, and 2026 has met many local Minnesota businesses with some tough decisions to make.
Layoffs and terminations are increasing again, and both employees and business leaders are feeling the weight of these decisions in a very real way at this time.
As a Fractional HR leader, the work right now is about balancing empathy and accountability—honoring the human impact while still doing what the business needs to survive and grow and achieving this result with clarity and care.
The Emotional Reality of Terminations
Behind every termination is a leader who would almost always rather be doing anything else. The most common phrases heard in these conversations are “I don’t like doing this,” “This isn’t what I want to be doing right now,” and “Can we find another way?”—that is the norm, not the exception.
For employees, a layoff or termination is rarely just a job change; it affects their identity, financial stability, and mental health, and it also sends shockwaves through those who remain. For employers, these decisions represent months of stress around budgets, performance gaps, client expectations, and the responsibility for protecting the larger team.
Why Compassion Alone Isn’t Enough
Leaders are told to lead with empathy and honesty, and that guidance is right—but it is incomplete. What is often missing from the conversation is how legal, compliance, and HR risk shape what you can and cannot say in difficult moments.
Many leaders want to sit down with an underperforming employee and say, “If this does not improve, your job is at risk,” in a very direct human way. However, without documentation, consistency, and clear expectations, those same conversations can later be used as evidence of unfair treatment or inconsistency in a legal claim. The tension you feel between “being human” and “protecting the business” is real—and it is precisely where thoughtful HR strategy belongs.
Using Clarity Before You Use A PIP
One of the most effective levers before a formal Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is structured, clear feedback that connects performance to the business. Research-backed best practices for performance improvement emphasize:
- Naming specific gaps in behavior or results using concrete examples, not generalizations.
- Setting measurable expectations and timelines, so employees know exactly what “better” looks like.
- Offering support—training, tools, coaching—so improvement is genuinely possible, not just theoretical.
In practice, this sounds like:
- “Here are the three areas where your performance is putting strain on the team and business.”
- “Here is what ‘meets expectations’ looks like in the next 30–60 days.”
- “Here is what support we can commit to—and what we need to see from you.”
These conversations create transparency without prematurely declaring, “You’re going to lose your job,” while still giving the employee a fair chance to course correct.
The Hard Line: When Termination Becomes Necessary
From a legal and HR standpoint, “just letting someone go” without groundwork is rarely an option, especially in a climate of heightened layoffs and scrutiny. Behind a single termination, there is often:
- A pattern of documented performance conversations and expectations.
- Internal alignment with finance, operations, and legal timing and risk.
- Coordination around severance, benefits, access removal, and communication to the team.
Done well, exits are handled with as much grace and kindness as possible—clear communication, dignity in the conversation, and support where feasible (including severance, references, outplacement). Done poorly, they create culture damage, “layoff survivor syndrome,” and a measurable hit to engagement, productivity, and retention among the remaining employees.
Looking Forward Into 2026: Do You Have the Right People in the Right Seats Today?
As your business evolves in 2026 amid elevated layoff levels across the U.S., the core strategic question is no longer, “Who do we need to let go?” but “Do we have the right people in the right roles for where we are going next?” That requires zooming out beyond individual performance issues.
Key questions to ask yourself as an owner or executive:
- Where are the true capability gaps in my organization today—skills, behaviors, leadership?
- Which roles are mission-critical for our 12 to 24-month strategy, and do we have A-level talent in those seats?
- Where are we “carrying” misalignment because the person is loyal, but the role has outgrown them?
- How am I equipping my leaders to provide clear, timely feedback before issues escalate to termination decisions?
Making these decisions thoughtfully—not in a five‑minute hallway conversation—protects your business and your people.
It allows you to move more slowly and deliberately in planning and documentation, so you can make a decision more quickly and cleanly when the time comes.
As a Fractional HR Consultant and partner, this is the work Elevate Results Consulting undertakes every day on behalf of our clients: helping to navigate the human side of difficult decisions while building a stronger, more aligned team on the other side.
Looking for a 2026 Workforce Strategy Audit? Let’s talk.