Employee Discipline

What should you do when an employee is not performing properly? This can be a difficult area, especially in a small firm where there is constant day to day contact. Before going into the basic steps of progressive discipline you should review a few of the common problems that supervisors have in approaching performance problems.

1) The basic role of the supervisor. Being a supervisor is a responsibility, not a status. As a supervisor you are responsible for getting specific actions and behaviors from employees. The first rule is you have to let each and every employee know specifically what is expected from them. This is a good time to be very direct. The employee has a right to know what they are supposed to be doing and how they are supposed to do it. Supervisors act on behalf of their employers. One of their responsibilities is to give employees clear and concise directions.

2) The second problem supervisors face is conflict. Discipline is never a responsibility that supervisors look forward to because it is a conflict situation. People generally don't like conflict and so there is a tendency to avoid it. Inexperienced (or incompetent) supervisors tend to avoid conflict. Often a supervisor will notice low productivity or other behavior and either do nothing or make vague comments or inferences to the employee, which the employee usually does not understand. Then, after the problem has gone on for a long period of time they will "blow up", finally facing the conflict they have avoided after the problem has become a big one. The proper way to handle problems is to address, and settle, conflict at its lowest point of disruption. This means right away. Putting it off only makes it worse. Each and every employee has a right to know how they are doing and to receive immediate feedback if they are not performing correctly. As a supervisor one of your job responsibilities is to enter into situations which can produce conflict and successfully resolve those situations on behalf of your employer. If you can not handle and resolve conflict do not become a supervisor.

3) What is an employee? Most new supervisors do not understand what an employee really is. An employee is an asset of the company. Like most assets they require some maintenance from time to time just like a truck or a piece of equipment. It is an economic mistake to let an employee perform poorly and then terminate them when, in most cases, even a minimal effort at correct supervision could have turned that employee into a valuable company asset. Many terminations are actually the fault of the supervisor rather than the fault of the employee.

The most important thing about employee discipline is that it is NEVER punishment. The goal of discipline is to correct behavior, not punish. Successful discipline causes an employee to do what is expected of them. It is not designed to make them feel bad or guilty and it is not a stigma which stays with them. Once the correct behavior is achieved the matter is finished and forgotten, unless the problem occurs again. There is a standard format for discipline. It is called progressive discipline and is used to gradually escalate the process from verbal warning through to termination. The process always gives the employee the chance to end the process by correcting their behavior. This format does two things, it protects the employer from lawsuits for wrongful or discriminatory termination and it puts some formal controls on the supervisor. At each stage of the process the employee must be told the following things

What is wrong
Why it is wrong
What should be, or have been, done (What must be done to correct)
What will happen next if it is not corrected (the next step in the disciplinary process)
When the employee's performance will be viewed for compliance.

Progressive steps in the disciplinary process

Discipline is normally done in steps. Each step should be documented either by a note to the employee's file or a copy of documents given to the employee. The most important element is a follow up meeting (usually two to four weeks) at a specific time and place to discuss improvement in behavior. Without the follow-up the process does not work very well. Be careful in conducting a disciplinary session that you do not adopt a demeanor which infers that you think the employee is stupid or in some way inferior or "bad". Such behavior on the part of the supervisor only increases the conflict and makes the process more difficult. The best way to approach it is to recognize that you both work for the same company and this meeting or action is to put the employee on the correct track for success with the organization. Before beginning progressive discipline have an informal, but direct, conversation with the employee telling them what is wrong and why it is wrong and what needs to be done to correct it. This is called the informal warning and it will correct about 90% of your employee problems. The following are the basic steps:

Informal verbal warning
Formal verbal warning (noted in file)
Written warning
Suspension (days off without pay)
Termination

Some behaviors, such as theft or fighting, result in immediate suspension or termination.

The following is a sample written warning from supervisor Jane to employee Joe, who does not get the monthly project billings out on time.