What Are the Steps in the Disciplinary Process?

Under what conditions can an employee be disciplined? Which disciplinary action forms should establish the fact of a disciplinary offense? From which day is the one-month deadline for disciplinary action calculated? What is the difference between incentive measures and bonuses, which are part of a salary? How can a disciplinary action form help you?

Three Important Rules for Good Team Management

1. Employees must respect their leader. Otherwise, no systems will bring the expected result: awards will not be strived for and punishments will not upset.
2. Intangible rewards and punishments are just as essential as tangible ones but are not a replacement. Cash should be rewarded to workers at regular intervals – for example, once per month or per quarter, or every six months. Even then, every person needs short-term, more frequent incentives.
3. Incompetent employees should be fired immediately (or after two warnings). Do not waste company resources on them. Such people set a negative example and reduce the overall performance of the company.

Grounds for filling out a disciplinary action form must be based on employees’ performance and attitude. Employees are following labor contracts, no matter the type and terms. In cases of non-fulfillment or inadequate fulfillment of their duties, the employer has the right to bring disciplinary action. To establish a disciplinary offense, the employer is required to conduct an official investigation. The employer must investigate all circumstances surrounding the employee’s violation of labor laws and collect a sufficient amount of evidence to indicate that the employee is guilty of committing an act that is against the law. After, a disciplinary action form is filled and filed. Various disciplinary action forms can serve as sufficient evidence:

• Memos from other employees
• Written testimony of witnesses
• Notification from state bodies that exercise control and supervision of compliance with legislation, in particular in the field of wage labor
• Conclusions of specialists
• Written explanations of the guilty party, etc.

Reasons to Consider Employee Disciplinary Action Form

Dismissal is a kind of “capital punishment” for an employee in a commercial company. How should it be applied? Which cases warrant immediate dismissal, and which cases need other disciplinary action? On the one hand, dismissal is not a productive step. The responsibility of education falls on the shoulders of family, educational institutions, and society. At the same time, the educational effect of the actions of the leader can be felt by the employee. The goal of the leader’s actions is not to educate, but to comply with the company’s corporate standards, which are entirely different things.

Alternatively, there are executives of whom dismissal from the company is the only material punishment; all other penalties come down to talking with the employee about necessary improvement. They later use these warnings as justification for losses of bonuses. Eventually, these managerial situations become a game of “parents” and “children.”. To avoid these situations, disciplinary action forms come in handy.

Disciplinary Measures

The ability to punish correctly is the direct responsibility of the leader. Few managers know how to do it appropriately and in a timely manner, but is an essential skill that every leader must master. It’s not pleasant to reprimand an employee, even someone who deserves it. If you are not going to fire an employee, then at least try not to ruin the relationship. Your main task is to have a productive dialogue and show the person where they made a mistake and how they could avoid a similar situation in the future. Disciplinary action forms are good interim steps between a “warning” and “firing.”

Remember that everyone makes mistakes. Your staff are not robots or machines. That is why it is essential to give timely corrections to inappropriate actions. Additionally, employees should know which consequences will follow, what needs to be done to correct this situation, and not repeat it.

The main goal of a disciplinary action form is to create a change in the system of behavior or a change in mindset. The objective is to provoke a change in behavior. The end goal of a disciplinary action form is to change attitude. The leader must be able to skillfully manage and influence employees to direct their strength and energy into creating a productive work environment. Serious reprimands are only relevant in specific cases:

1. When there has been a direct violation of a law 
2. Committed an act that caused material damage

For example, a manager was not able to ship products to the customer due to receivables but he did it anyway. Even though the customer paid both this order and previous debts, the employee still violated direct instructions. If you are confused about whether you should fill out a disciplinary action form or not, the answer is yes. Do it. All questionable situations should involve a disciplinary action form. Write it in the employment contract. The most important note: Never insult your employees. Your task is to stop wrong actions but not to humiliate someone.

“Temporary Freeze” as a Method of Hiding From a Problem

We all dream of “freezing” a problematic situation. If an employee has had 10 ‘last warnings’ that the manager has hoped would work, a temporary freeze only pushes the problem back. Instead, consider write-up forms for disciplining employees. The breakup will happen sooner or later, but if it happens too late, it is most likely after significant losses for your company and a permanently spoiled relationship with the dismissed person.

Many managers prefer to “freeze” problems, preferring to solve the snowball of issues sometime in the future. Why? At some point, the employee accumulates so many strikes that the manager reaches the boiling point. Eventually, the straw will break the camel’s back and you will be furious!

Low Managerial Qualifications

The main reason for these situations is a lack of managerial qualifications of the leader. You should constantly be giving clear feedback and documenting conversations and subsequent results. Did you ignore a change in an employee’s behavior? Why did you allow them to continue working after realizing that they hadn’t changed after disciplinary action?

As long as you keep the mindset that the employees are to blame, the same situation will be repeated over and over.

What should you do? Should you search for the 10% of people who work well under any leader? A more productive solution would be to answer the question, “Why do they need you?” Perhaps engage in improving your managerial qualifications. There are often situations where a manager cannot dismiss his subordinate. However, he has the authority to do so and has the power to raise the question of dismissal before a superior. if you do not have such authority, you are not a leader.

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