by Celeste Marchand
You may become aware of employee disciplinary problems through a variety of sources. You may receive complaints from customers or fellow employees. Or you may observe first hand that the employee is doing or failing to do something that merits some form of discipline. Even if the infraction seems small or you think it might be a one-time incident, you should follow a procedure for documenting that you discussed the problem with the employee. This will protect you if the employee continues to have problems by showing that you consistently applied disciplinary procedures and that you made attempts to reform the employee's conduct. This documentation could be very valuable if you ever have to defend an unemployment claim or wrongful termination suit.
This first step in documenting a disciplinary problem is getting the complaint down in writing. You can offer customers and fellow employees the opportunity to put their complaint in writing. If they decline to do so, you should still document the complaint in writing. Include as much information as you can, who complained, about what, when it happened etc. Or if it is behavior that you observed personally, you should put the incident down in writing.
Next give the employee who is the subject of the discipline an opportunity to respond in writing as well. This gives the person an opportunity to state his or her side of the story. The employee may admit to wrongdoing or make statements that he or she will correct the problem behavior. This shows that the employee is aware that there is a problem with his or her conduct. Even if the employee does not make any admissions in the written response, it is still valuable evidence that you engaged in a dialogue with the employee regarding the incident in question.
Depending on the nature of the problem, you should counsel the employee on why the conduct requires discipline and what the consequences will be. You may want to inform the employee of any policies regarding disciplinary actions for further infractions. For example, if the problem is that an employee is consistently late, you should document that you have brought the problem to the employee's attention, informed the employee of what is expected, and outlined the consequences of further infractions. Try to get the employee to acknowledge that he or she understands the problem and disciplinary action by signing the document. If the employee refuses to sign, note that the opportunity was given but refused.
You may want to develop a form or set of forms to use to document the entire process. This will promote consistency across employees and across incidents. Having a form to fill in may make it easier to remember each step in the process as well.
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