Termination Risk Playbook

The Termination Risk Playbook: Defend the Decision Before It’s Challenged is a practical, high-impact toolkit designed to help Canadian HR professionals reduce legal risk when making termination decisions.

Most termination-related claims do not arise because the decision itself was wrong. They arise because the process leading up to the decision was incomplete, inconsistent, or poorly documented. Timing issues, gaps in performance management, and missteps in communication can quickly turn a routine termination into a wrongful dismissal, human rights, or reprisal claim.

This playbook provides a structured framework to help HR leaders identify and address those risks before acting.

It includes a Pre-Termination Risk Audit to assess documentation, timing, and exposure, along with a Wrongful Dismissal Exposure Framework that helps quantify potential financial impact. It also provides practical termination conversation scripts, a litigation-ready documentation checklist, and a defensible Performance Improvement Plan structure to ensure employees are given a fair and well-documented opportunity to improve.

To reinforce these tools, the playbook draws on real Canadian cases to illustrate how common mistakes lead to liability. It also highlights high-risk scenarios where termination exposure increases suddenly, such as after complaints, medical disclosures, or safety concerns. Finally, it includes a critical decision framework to help HR leaders avoid one of the most costly mistakes in employment law: improperly alleging just cause.

The result is a clear, actionable guide that shifts termination decisions from reactive to strategic, helping organizations reduce legal exposure, improve consistency, and make more defensible decisions with confidence.