Working with family can be a pleasure. It can also be a pain, especially if you have to terminate a family member’s employment. Here are tips to help you ease the strain of mixing your family and employee relationships.

Hire for the right reasons. Make your hiring and firing decisions based on the skill sets needed to keep your business operating effectively. Hiring your son because he’s struggling to find a job is not a good business reason for bringing staff on board.

Set clear expectations. Communicate the job’s performance requirements to your family member right from the start. Clearly define company policies for promotion, compensation and termination. Make it plain that unethical conduct will not be tolerated.

Avoid nepotism. Nepotism is our human habit of treating family members more favorably than others. Keep in mind that your non-family employees will be hypersensitive to any favoritism you show to relatives.

Document performance. Throughout your family member’s tenure, maintain a detailed personnel file that tracks behavior resulting in disciplinary actions. In the unfortunate case of a necessary firing, a well-documented file will provide a narrative record that lays out your reasons and clearly communicates the evidence leading to your decision.

If you have to fire, keep it professional. Set a formal termination meeting. You may want to involve a direct supervisor or a human resources professional to ensure that your company is appropriately represented and to prevent the conversation from lapsing into emotional arguments.

The bottom line: Adhere to formal business standards and communicate in a professional, businesslike manner with your related employees.