Terminations are where every earlier HR shortcut presents its bill. The missing documentation, the inconsistent discipline, the promise a manager once made — all of it surfaces in the two weeks around a separation, which is why wrongful-termination claims routinely cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees before any damages.
This checklist sequences the entire process for a Texas employer: a pre-termination phase covering personnel file review, at-will verification, and legal-compliance assessment one to two weeks out; the termination meeting itself with logistics and communication steps; and the aftermath — final pay on the Texas Payday Law clock, benefits and COBRA notices, system access, equipment recovery, and references.
Who should use this checklist
- Texas business owners conducting a termination without in-house counsel
- HR managers standardizing separations across supervisors
- Office managers responsible for final pay and offboarding logistics
- Leaders inheriting a termination decision someone else made
What it helps prevent
- Terminations executed before anyone reviewed the personnel file
- Final paychecks issued after the six-day Texas deadline
- Discrimination exposure from unexamined timing and comparators
- System access and company property loose ends after separation
- Improvised termination meetings that inflame instead of conclude
What’s inside
- Phase I — Pre-termination planning and risk assessment (1–2 weeks before)
- Personnel file, at-will status, and legal compliance review
- Termination meeting logistics, script, and witness planning
- Final pay calculation on the Texas Payday Law timeline
- Benefits, COBRA, and required notices
- System access, equipment, and post-separation steps
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.