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The prospect of disciplining employees can make managers nervous. That’s understandable. No one enjoys those conversations, but when warranted, they’re a necessary part of the employment relationship. And employees often come to appreciate the feedback they receive, as it gives them an opportunity to improve their performance or behavior and keep their job.
Discipline is an act on the part of the employer to address and correct inappropriate behavior or a policy violation by an employee. Discipline functions both as an incentive for employees to refrain from bad behavior in the first place and as a corrective action if bad behavior occurs. Common forms of discipline include oral warnings, written warnings, and termination.
Recommendations When Disciplining Employees
When deciding on disciplinary measures, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Discipline should reflect the severity of the behavior. Egregious sexual harassment might merit immediate termination, while forgetting to clock in one time almost certainly wouldn’t.
- Discipline should be applied consistently. For instance, if you jump straight to a final warning when a certain employee is an hour late to work, but let another employee come in late regularly without so much as an oral warning, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. Consider how you addressed certain behaviors in the past and the precedent you want to set for the future.
- At each step, make your expectations clear, notify the employee of the consequences should they fail to improve (e.g., they’ll be one step closer to termination), and document what actions you took.
- The warnings you give to the employee should stick to the facts, i.e., what infraction was observed, when it occurred, and what policy or policies were violated. Opinions about the infraction should be left out, as these are easily disputed. For example, “Yesterday, you arrived 20 minutes late in violation of our attendance policy” simply states the facts, whereas “You’re always tardy and can’t be trusted to arrive on time” is likely to get pushback.
Employee Discipline Best Practices
Here are our tips for successful discipline:
1. Train Management Properly
Train managers on the policies they’re supposed to enforce. If managers don’t understand these policies, their enforcement can become inconsistent and subject to bias. In these circumstances, discipline can appear unfair. Worse, it can open the organization up to costly discrimination claims.
2. Investigate Thoroughly
Investigate allegations before acting on them. Sometimes, in a rush to correct wrongdoing or poor performance, a manager will discipline an employee after hearing only one side of the story. For example, a restaurant customer complains about rude service, and the server is immediately written up and given no chance to explain what happened from their point of view. Such adverse actions tell employees they can be penalized even if they do nothing wrong, causing them to feel resentment, fear, and distrust.
3. Written Warning Procedure
Written warnings are best drafted by the manager and reviewed by HR. An employee’s manager often has firsthand knowledge of an infraction or unacceptable performance, making them the right person to draft the written warning. HR can collaborate with the manager by reviewing the warning to ensure that it’s factual, unemotional, thorough, clear, tied to a company policy, and consistent with how others have been treated under similar circumstances in the past.
4. Discuss Action Steps
Corrective action is best delivered by the employee’s direct manager. This tells the employee that their manager is invested in their success and is willing to help them improve. Leaving corrective action to HR tells employees that they’re “someone else’s problem” and that their manager may not be fully vested in enforcing the company’s policies and practices.
5. Use Witnesses
During a disciplinary meeting, a witness can help document what was said and done. Not every disciplinary meeting needs a witness, though—especially if the issue is a minor one, or it’s a first conversation about performance issues. In these cases, whether to have a witness present can be left to each manager’s discretion. A witness is more useful for a meeting that‘s likely to escalate, either due to the nature of the issue or discipline, or the temper of the employee.
6. Use Progressive Warnings
In situations where minor policy violations are an ongoing issue, a progressive approach is often best. For a first offense, you might start with an oral warning, then move to a written warning, final warning, and then termination if the issue persists.
7. Document Everything
Document every disciplinary action taken and the outcomes of those actions. Documentation shows that you made a good faith effort to help the employee improve their performance or behavior.
Help with Disciplining Employees and Other HR Issues
If you don’t have the HR staff or resources to help with potentially complex HR issues like employee discipline, GTM’s HR consultants are here to help. Our HR Support and Consulting service gives you the right amount of HR assistance you need – from occasional projects and one-off jobs to consistent on- or off-site support, we will tailor a solution that works for your business and your employees.
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