Terminating an Employee

This article is about Justworks PEO. What product am I using?

Terminating an employee

To terminate an employee, navigate to the employee's profile under Manage > Employees and select Schedule Termination at the top right of the screen.

This leads you to the employee separation flow. Justworks will collect initial information such as separation date, last day worked and whether the termination was voluntary or involuntary.

• Examples of voluntary separation: employee quits, employee finds a new job, employee retires 
• Examples of involuntary separation: policy violation, poor performance, employee's position is eliminated, end of contract/assignment

Depending on which separation type is chosen, an additional drop-down to include the specific Reason for separation will appear. 

A dynamic questionnaire related to the separation reason selected will appear. This allows Justworks to collect and provide the most accurate information to the necessary state agency to manage an unemployment claim.

Additional Payments

After completing the questionnaire, you will have the option to enter one or multiple additional payments (such as bonuses, commissions or severance) to be issued separately from the employee’s final wages.

Payments scheduled within the separation flow can be set up to recur a specific number of times. Selecting Yes for Does This Payment Repeat?, you will be prompted to complete additional fields for Start Date, Amount per payment, Pay Frequency and total Number of Payments. An optional note can be added to be included with each pay stub.

If a payment scheduled via the separation flow was created in error, you can cancel or adjust these in the Payments Center.

Review & Submission

Prior to finalizing the separation, you will have an opportunity to review all the details entered into the flow and make any corrections. The separation is finalized by clicking Submit.

After scheduling the separation, Justworks will provide employee separation best practices based on the state in which the employee works. 

State-Specific Separation Rules

Certain states have additional rules surrounding employee separation. Justworks has outlined some additional guidance for separating employees in the following states and districts. 

• Terminating an Employee - California
• Terminating an Employee - Colorado
• Terminating an Employee - District of Columbia
• Terminating an Employee - Massachusetts
• Terminating an Employee - New York 

Within Justworks, you can find links to required Notices of Separation by clicking on the clipboard icon on the Manage Employees screen.

Access for Terminated Employees

Terminated employees will still have access to their Justworks account and will still be able to receive payments. Terminated admins will default to still having access to admin privileges until 2:00AM (EST) after their separation date. However, existing admins can revoke these privileges at any time.

After an employee has been terminated, they will appear under a "Former Employee" field in the employee list. They will also no longer be searchable in your account

Benefit Effective Dates

When you terminate an employee, you'll be asked to choose a separation date. This date will determine when their benefits will end. Terminated employees who have benefits will receive those benefits until the end of the month following their effective separation date.

Ex: If an employee is terminated on June 23, most of their benefits (like medical, dental, and vision) will be effective until June 30.

An employee can opt into a continuation of their medical, dental and vision through COBRA coverage.

Employer-Paid COBRA Contributions (COBRA Severance)

Employers on Justworks, who have terminated employees eligible for or enrolled in COBRA through WageWorks, have the option to contribute to the employees' COBRA premiums directly through Justworks.  We will bill your company directly and handle setting up employer-paid COBRA in WageWorks. For more details and to get set up, check out this Employer-Paid COBRA Contributions article.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I delete an employee’s profile?

Employee profiles cannot be deleted, but you can hide them from being shown in the Directory and Org Chart by navigating to the settings within an employee's profile and editing the visibility. Terminated employee profiles are only visible to admins and can be found within Manage > Employees > Former Employees.

Disclaimer

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, legal or tax advice. If you have any legal or tax questions regarding this content or related issues, then you should consult with your professional legal or tax advisor.