

Discipline puts the employee on notice of the severity of the problem, as well as the consequences for not correcting it. If the problem persists and terminating the employee becomes necessary, you’ll have a record of the problem and the actions you took to address it.
Most employers follow progressive discipline wherein an employee receives a series of warnings before termination. For example, the employee may get a verbal warning for a first offense, a written warning if the problem continues, a final written warning and as a last step, termination.
Cutting corners with documentation is the single biggest mistake managers make when handling progressive discipline and terminations. You need to recognize that your company may have to explain a termination decision long after it occurs. In the case of employees terminated for poor job performance or misconduct, this means having on file all performance reviews, notes from counseling sessions, and written warnings leading to the termination decision.
Example: It’s not enough to write that an employee is “excessively late.” Your documentation should indicate each date the employee was late, and how late he or she was each time.
Example: If a sales manager has distributed a memo establishing sales objectives, this could serve as a written standard referenced in the write-up about poor sales performance.
Example: If an employee is being written up for tardiness, your objective could be, “You must be present and ready to begin work each scheduled day at 8:30 a.m.” Or if a write-up addresses poor sales performance, you could state the number of sales to be met in a specific timeframe (or however you measure sales productivity).
Example: You may suggest specific tools or resources that will help the employee, such as training, webinars, instructional videos, practicing certain tasks, or pairing up with a helper or mentor.
Example: This could be a verbal warning, written warning, suspension with or without pay, demotion, decrease in pay, probation, or termination.
Example: Depending on where you are in the disciplinary process, this could be an additional written warning, suspension with or without pay, demotion, decrease in pay, probation, or termination.
Documentation is one critical factor when disciplining employees, but there are many other factors to consider. Get an in-depth review of common performance management scenarios and what you can do to enhance their outcomes by watching the FREE webinar, 5 Performance Management Scenarios: Navigating Everyday Encounters for Greater Results.
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