Estimates have suggested that between 3%-5% of the working population receive some form of disciplinary action each year in the UK. This would mean that in an organisation of 1,000 employees, about 50 employees would receive some form of disciplinary action.
Getting it right is vital in today’s litigious society and most employers lose employment tribunals, not because of the rights or wrongs of the situation but because they didn’t follow correct procedure. This begs the question of what should constitute the use of discipline. There are mainly three areas that a manager should examine before embarking on formal or informal discipline: problems in performance, behaviour or attitude.
Our course Disciplinary Procedures and Correcting Poor Performance allows managers to examine in detail what they should consider before, during and after disciplinary action. Here are some examples:
Performance problems
- Does the employee require constant supervision?
- Does the employee tend to “pass the buck” on unpleasant tasks when problems occur?
- Does the employee miss work deadlines?
- Does the employee turn in work that is not complete?
Behaviour problems
- Is the employee absent beyond reasonable norms?
- Does the employee let family or personal problems interfere excessively with work?
- Does the employee use the telephone excessively for personal use?
- Does the employee cause personality conflicts with other workers?
Attitude problems
- Does the employee frequently have a negative attitude?
- Is the employee severely unmotivated?
- Does the employee complain excessively?
- Does the employee express contempt for the work, customers, management, or the organisation?
- Correct preliminary procedures
- The key to effective discipline is to get the procedures right from the start.
- Speak to H/R to discuss to clarify the situation and your courses of action
- Keep an open and running record of your discussions with the employee as you point out the problem and the effect of the behaviour or attitude.
- Ensure you have factual evidence and specific dates of examples.
- If the principal problem is attitude, be sure to identify the resulting behaviour or performance issues (i.e. how the attitude manifests itself).
- Clarify the problem with the employee to be sure he/she understands your concerns.
- Be consistent and fair when dealing with all employees over similar events
- Ensure there is no confusion about the consequences and your expectations clearly.
- With serious or frequent incidents document the discussion in a memo to the employee and keep a copy.
