Disciplining Your Workers
If you have any workplace rules
or policies, there's a good chance that sooner or later they will be broken by
one of your employees and that you may have to enforce those rules with some
form of discipline.
Discipline doesn't mean automatic termination. In all but the most serious
cases, you'll want to try to avoid terminating employees, especially if they are
good workers. In fact, terminating a worker without some form of discipline
policy and procedure could land you in court. Without a clear policy and
evidence that the policy was used for the terminated employee, you could end up
in a "your word against the employee's" situation.
Here are some topics for you to consider as you formulate your discipline
policy:
- Setting
up a discipline program gives you some background on the philosophy and
the goals of a discipline program. It also explains progressive discipline
and what a discipline program should contain.
- Employees'
complaints assists you in dealing with employees' complaints and guides
you though the process of setting up a program and a policy to manage these
complaints.
- Conducting
an investigation tells you what to do once a complaint has been received
and details the steps you need to take in assessing the situation. This is a
process that you must master if your discipline program is to be successful.
- Dealing
with problem employees will help you with the hardest part of the
discipline process - actually confronting the employee. You'll need to make
decisions about whether to coach or penalize an employee and how to go about
doing it.
- Documenting
disciplinary actions is a critical part of the discipline process that
you must master to protect your business and justify any actions you take
against employees.