HR platforms and employee termination: why software alone isn't enough

Ending an employee’s employment is something every business needs to do correctly. In Australia, there are clear legal obligations the employer needs to meet while also ensuring you protect your company’s information and equipment, and the wellbeing of all involved.

If you use HR software, it’s easy to keep track of your employment documents, make notes about employees’ work, run performance reviews, log written warnings, and send reminders for follow-up. This sets you up with a clear papertrail to refer to when deciding to terminate employment.

However, no matter how well configured your HR system is, nothing can replicate human expertise in making sure your judgement and reasoning are sound, and that the process you follow is fair and lawful. Getting it wrong could open you up to unfair dismissal claims or other employment disputes.

In short: software manages the paperwork, expert advice manages the risk.

What HR software actually does during a termination

HR software is designed to streamline employment procedures and give you more control. During termination and employee offboarding, good HR software will ensure you cover all the necessary steps, and make the process quicker by automating tasks and producing documentation.

A good HR platform will:

Maintain accurate records of employee performance and conduct, and any steps you’ve taken to help the employee address issues, e.g. written warnings, performance improvement plans - necessary when establishing a valid reason for termination and that you have followed fair and reasonable process throughout.
Organise documentation for easy reference - e.g. the termination clause in the employment contract to confirm requirements and notice period.
Generate accurate end-of-employment documents - e.g. termination letters - using customised templates.
Automate offboarding tasks - e.g. final day of work, company asset recovery, access shutdown - and track progress to ensure you don’t miss a critical step and you protect company information and property.
Calculate unused leave balances and final payments in accordance with employment regulations.
Record exit data - e.g. from exit interviews - and collate statistics - e.g. employee turnover - to give leadership better understanding of staff trends.

Where HR software alone falls short when it comes to employee termination

The decision to terminate a worker’s employment depends upon judgement. Legally, you are ending the employment contract, so in doing you must:

Have a genuine reason for ending the employment relationship, e.g. persistent poor performance, repeated misconduct.
Follow fair and reasonable process - even in the case of summary dismissal for serious misconduct you must investigate the issue and allow the employee an opportunity to respond to the allegations.

While you may have some protection from unfair dismissal claims in the first 6 months of a worker's employment (or 12 months if you're a small business), employees can still raise a general protections claim if the dismissal is for a prohibited or discriminatory reason, e.g. because of their race, sex, age, religion or other protected attributes, or exercising a workplace right.

Software helps take care of the process and documentation that leads to termination, but the decision-making also needs to meet legal thresholds, and there is no replacing human expertise in ensuring that reasoning is sound.

3 example termination scenarios where HR software alone may not be enough:

An employee is accused of misconduct. Is it enough to be considered serious misconduct or not?
An employee has been on sick leave for an extended period, can you consider dismissing them?
If an employee is really bad at their job or a bad fit for the organisation, should you restructure the team to disestablish their position or take formal steps to manage their performance?

Getting the answer right in these sorts of situations can mean the difference between handling the situation appropriately (e.g. providing written warnings leading to termination) or facing a unfair dismissal or general protections claim.

While an employer can choose how they respond, what matters is whether that response will hold up if it’s challenged. Firing someone without notice or making them redundant because they don’t fit in are options, but there is a wealth of case law to prove they are risky ones.

Bottom line: There is no single "right" way to terminate employment; the approach depends on the situation and software (even AI-powered) can’t make the best decision without qualified human input.

Employment law frequently changes

The Australian government frequently passes bills to update the Fair Work Act and other labour legislation. The terms and classifications in modern awards are often changed as well.

If you run HR software without expert oversight, there’s every chance you might miss these (and other) important updates, putting you at serious risk of not complying with regulations. A smart HR platform backed by HR professionals ensures your systems are immediately updated any time the law changes, so you won’t be caught short.

What MyHR "advisory support" actually looks like in practice

The dismissal process can be lengthy, and a misstep in your procedure or reasoning could give the employee grounds to challenge the decision.

MyHR’s experienced team of Australian HR professionals helps businesses with termination procedures every day, and there’s not much we haven’t seen. From the moment a MyHR customer contacts us about a potential dismissal or employment relationship problem, our HR advisory team can assess the situation and provide expert advice about your best option(s) and the common pitfalls you should avoid.

For business owners, our HR advisors are an invaluable sounding board, sense-checking decisions, navigating claims, and providing tailored guidance - from meeting scripts to final documentation - all delivered through our powerful HR platform.

MyHR’s unique combination of HR software and real HR expertise protects your business and ensures you are supported every step of the way.

Should I seek HR software, HR advice, or both?

For any employer, good HR software makes all aspects of employment and people management easier. Instead of relying on manual systems or reactive processes, HR software sets you up with a platform that takes care of every employment relationship.

Building healthy working relationships reduces the chances things will get so bad you have no choice but to fire an employee. But if a difficult situation arises (as they do) and the relationship becomes untenable, having a record of your efforts to support the employee or correct their behaviour only provides you with half the picture. To ensure your decision-making and the process you followed in reaching that decision is legally defensible, you need the guidance of HR professionals.

With the right combination of expert HR guidance and a smart HR platform, you can end the employment relationship cleanly and respectfully, so you and your team can get on with business.

What to check before you dismiss someone

Do you have a valid reason for the termination? Underperformance, misconduct, or genuine redundancy can all count. Personal animosity, prejudice, or wanting to replace someone who's actually competent at their job don't.
Has your process been fair and reasonable? This means raising concerns clearly, giving the employee a real chance to respond, and genuinely considering what they say before deciding. This best-practice, even if the employee is still within the minimum employment period.
If it's employee misconduct, is it actually serious misconduct, or a first minor issue? The two are treated very differently. Serious misconduct can justify dismissal without notice, a single minor incident usually can't.
Have you given the correct notice, or paid it out? Notice periods are typically specified in the employment contract or relevant modern award. Serious misconduct is the main exception that allows dismissal without notice.
Is your documentation actually dated and complete? Warnings for poor performance, meeting notes, the employee's responses, and the final decision should all be recorded as they happen, not reconstructed afterwards.
Are you within the 21-day window employees have to raise a unfair dismissal or general protections claim, and is your process defensible if they do? Most employees have the right to raise an application with the Fair Work Commission within 21 days of the dismissal, so it’s best to design and manage your termination process as if it will be checked.

Like many aspects of employment in Australia, it may seem there’s a certain degree of ambiguity when it comes to these checks. However, the law has clearly established that employers must have a good reason to dismiss an employee and they must follow fair and reasonable process in doing so.

That’s where a system like MyHR with built-in advisory support protects your business. You can proceed with a termination process with complete peace of mind, knowing your actions and reasoning are watertight.

Get it right and avoid the risk

If you find yourself at the point of dismissing an employee and you're not sure your procedure or judgment will hold up to legal scrutiny, talk to an HR professional. If you’re already using HR software, it might store the outcome and managerial steps leading up to it, but it can’t ensure the decision you made and the process you followed in terminating employment won’t come back to haunt you.