Constructive Discipline - Corrective Action & Documentation

Constructive or Progressive discipline is a method of discipline that uses graduated

steps for dealing with problems related to an employee's conduct or performance
that do not meet clearly defined standards and policies. ... Provides a consistent,
objective and fair process for disciplining

The ideal is that all employees are productive, contributing members of the
organization. However, when performance begins to deteriorate, or a serious,
inappropriate incident occurs, it is imperative that the supervisor communicate his or
her concerns with the employee. The severity of the issue will determine the
appropriate corrective action. Feedback needs to be immediate and ongoing.
In order to be effective and correct employee behavior, corrective action must have
certain fundamental characteristics; it must be progressive, consider past practice
and equitable treatment; and meet the test of just cause. The principle of
"progressive and constructive" action involves informing the employee of the
problem and the need to correct it, and then using increasingly stronger disciplinary
measures if the employee fails to correct the problem. The formal constructive
discipline process may include a verbal reprimand, a written reprimand, suspension,
and termination of employment. The degree of action taken must correlate to the
seriousness of the offense and the employee's record. Corrective action should be
taken at the minimum level necessary to bring about correction of the problem. If the
problem is not corrected, more severe action will be taken, up to and including
termination of employment.

A. The Importance of the Probation Period

The Employer has established a 12-months’ probation period for all newly-appointed
employees. Its purpose is to assure the supervisor that the employee can
satisfactorily fulfil the requirements of the position. The employee's work
performance should be monitored throughout this “trial” period and measured
against the department's policies, procedures, work rules, and performance
standards. If the supervisor sees or anticipates a problem developing, it should be
dealt with immediately. Inform the employee verbally and in writing that there is a
problem, give the employee reasonable time to correct the problem, and explain to
him/her the consequences of not correcting the problem. Disciplining an employee
during this period is a shortened process. Conversely, disciplining an employee who
has completed the introductory period is a longer and more complex process.
The probation period may be extended for up to an additional six months
(max of one year from hire date), if additional time is needed to gauge suitability for
the position. There are provisions within probation policy for extending the probation
period for Operating Staff. Contact HR to request the extension of a probation
period or to terminate employment within the introductory period. This must be done
prior to the end of the probation period. The employee must be notified in writing that
the probation period has been extended.
A written performance evaluation is required by the end of the 12-months’ probation
period.

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B. Corrective Action Steps

 Probation
 Counselling
 Verbal Warning
 Written Reprimand
 Suspension Without Pay
 Termination of Employment

1. Counselling Session
In most situations, the problem will first be brought to the employee's attention with a
counselling session. This initial counselling is not considered part of the formal
disciplinary system. During counselling, the supervisor should make sure the
employee is aware of the problem and impress upon him/her the importance and
necessity of correcting the problem. If the problem continues, corrective action may
be initiated.
Although counselling is not recognized as a formal disciplinary step, it is strongly
recommended to retain a written record of counselling including dates.

2. Verbal Warning
This is the initial step of progressive discipline. Oral or written warnings are given to
inform the staff member of unacceptable behavior or unsatisfactory job performance
and actions necessary to improve performance or behavior. If the problem
continues, the supervisor may want to repeat this step before proceeding to a written
reprimand.

3. Written Reprimand
A reprimand is a written description of an unacceptable behavior or unsatisfactory
job performance. The written reprimand includes a review of any prior related
corrective action taken, a thorough statement of the circumstances causing the
current corrective action, and a clear picture of future expectations. It is placed in
the official personnel file for the purpose of documentation. The reprimand may
include a limit on the length of time that the document is in the file, or it may become
part of the next performance evaluation as appropriate.

4. Suspension Without Pay

Suspension is an involuntary unpaid leave of absence ranging from one to five days
depending on the severity of the offense. Written notification of suspension shall
include the reasons for the action. Benefits for the employee will continue during
suspension.

5. Suspension Pending Investigation with Pay

There are situations where the employee must be removed from the work place
immediately before an investigation can be conducted. Examples of these
situations might be suspected theft, potential sabotage, disorderly conduct, or where
the employee presents a threat to other employees. In these instances, the
employee can be suspended with pay pending the results of the investigation. The

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supervisor must contact Human Resources immediately. This should be done
before sending the employee home, unless there is a need to remove the employee
immediately because the employee presents a clear and imminent danger if left in
the work place. The suspension pending investigation is imposed with the
understanding that a final decision, relative to the appropriate disciplinary action, will
be made after the investigation. If there is no cause for disciplinary action, the
employee will receive pay for regular earnings lost during the suspension.

6. Probation
The probationary period is for use when the introductory period has ended and an
employee’s performance or behavior has fallen below acceptable standards. Its
purpose is to provide a structured environment for constructive criticism and change.
Probationary status shall include a good faith effort to correct the performance
deficiencies. A written description of expectations and necessary corrective actions
will be provided to the staff member.
The probationary period is normally 30 to 60 days, but may vary in length depending
on the number of years of satisfactory prior service and the severity of the problem.
Supervisors are responsible for determining and communicating the probationary
status in writing. They shall consult with HR prior to any communication of
probationary status to the staff member. During this period regular feedback must be
given to the employee. At the end of the probationary period, the employee is
returned to regular status if the problem is resolved.
The employee must continue to meet the expectations required or termination may
result (depending upon the amount of time since probation ended). If the problem is
not resolved, the trial may be extended or employment may be terminated.

7. Termination of Employment
If all the previous steps have not been successful, the employee may be terminated
from employment. As in the previous steps, it is critical that the employee be given
an opportunity to hear the concerns and expectations, understand the
consequences, and offer an explanation. In any situation serious enough to justify
termination of employment, University policy requires the supervisor to contact
Human Resources prior to taking any action. HR review the case to verify that there
is just cause for termination of employment and that the employee has been afforded
due process.

8. Documentation
All documentation of corrective action should be included in the employee's
personnel file at Human Resources and the department. The record has three parts:
the present, the past, and the future.
O The Present
. This section states the purpose of the corrective action and cites the
specific incident or nature of the problem. In recounting the incident or problem,
include what occurred and when, how it affected the work activity, the results of
the investigation, and the employee's explanation. State only the facts that can be
proven and/or have been observed. This section also cites the specific rule,

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policy, or standard violated, and disciplinary action being taken as a result of the
employee's actions. Stress the significance of the problem and the reason for the
corrective action.
O The Past
. This section reviews the employee's work record, gives the history of
related offenses (if any), and reminds the employee of previous disciplinary
actions taken. This summary of past events demonstrates the progressiveness of
the corrective action.
O The Future
. Finally, the employee must have a clear understanding of the
expected standard of behavior or performance, how this standard can be achieved,
and the consequences of continued failure to meet these expected standards.
Write in easily understood language, emphasize the "do" rather than the "don't", and
focus on the future rather than the past. In other words, use a tone of correction not
punishment. It is strongly recommended that you keep a record of any relevant
situations that occur once you have initiated the progressive disciplinary process.
These notes should give all the necessary pertinent information (including when it
was brought to the employee’s attention). The notes should be dated and signed and
kept in the supervisor's file.

9. Informing the Employee

Inform the employee of the corrective action, both verbally and in writing, as soon as
possible after the disciplinary decision has been reached. The purpose is to outline
what is wrong, what corrective action is being taken, and what is expected in the
future. As a supervisor, keep close control of your emotions, avoid sarcasm, threats,
nagging, getting into an argument with the employee, or loss of temper. With the
obvious exception of a termination of employment, the purpose of the disciplinary
action is to correct a problem. The employee needs to leave this meeting knowing
better conduct is expected.

C. Supervisor Tips for Corrective Action

These tips should be helpful in analyzing an employee problem and determining

what corrective action might be appropriate. It is intended to help the supervisor
remain objective in analyzing and administering progressive and constructive and
corrective disciplinary action. "No" answers may indicate that more information,
further analysis, or non-corrective action may be required. You should answer all of
the questions before deciding on a plan of action. Then consult your supervisor
and/or Human Resources.

Work Performance Problem

- If the employee is not adequately performing the work
assigned:
1. Does the employee understand your expectations?
What to do? How to do it? Why to do it? When to do it?
2. Does the employee have access to and know where to find written instructions or
procedures, or how to receive proper training?
3. Has the employee ever demonstrated the skill?

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4. Is it a skill the employee can be taught?
5. Based on experience/education, is it a skill the employee should possess?
6. Could the employee perform the skill if he/she wanted to?
7. Is the work expected reasonable?
8. Has the job changed?

Behavior Problem
-- If the employee's behavior is inappropriate/unacceptable:
1. Does the employee understand acceptable behavior?
2. Has the behavior been acceptable in the past?

Supervisor's Responsibility

-- The Employer depends on supervisors to communicate Employer policies and

practices. Since the supervisor determines job tasks/duties, job performance
expectations and departmental work rules must be communicated.

1. Has the supervisor provided adequate training?

2. Can the employee function within the work group without using the deficient skill?
3. Does the supervisor reinforce acceptable behavior?
4. Has acceptable behavior been clearly communicated to the employee?
5. Has the supervisor discussed this problem with the employee to get an
explanation?
6. Does the supervisor understand the employee's explanation?
7. Has the supervisor conducted an objective investigation by approaching the
problem from all the angles?
8. Has the supervisor questioned the people involved including those mentioned by
the employee?
9. Has the supervisor examined the physical evidence (e.g., time cards, vouchers,
daily logs, equipment, location)?
10. Does the supervisor know the basic facts (e.g., dates, times, places, people
involved?
11. Has the supervisor separated the disputed facts from the undisputed facts?
12. Has the supervisor considered any mitigating or aggravating circumstances
which may affect the level of disciplinary action?
13. Has the supervisor checked University and Departmental policy?
14. Is there a past history of enforcing disciplinary action for the same/similar
offense?
15. Has the employee been employed a long time?
16. Is the employee's work record below the rest of the work group?
17. Did the employee know or should he/she have known the rule or policy?
18. Is the rule that has been violated a reasonable one?
19. Did the inappropriate performance/behavior result in cost to others?
20. Did the inappropriate performance/behavior result in danger to other?
21. Has the supervisor set a date to follow up with the employee?
22. Has the supervisor determined the appropriate disciplinary action?
23. Has the supervisor consulted Human Resources?
24. Above all, has the supervisor documented your investigation in writing?

Before administering disciplinary steps, make sure the following have occurred:

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 Furthermore, they are the proactive steps that managers should take to prevent the
need for corrective actions.
1. The employee received adequate training
2.The employee received adequate supervision and has suitable equipment
3.The employee’s performance was judged against reasonable job standards
4.The employee was made aware of these standards
5.The employee was warned of his or her sub-standard performance before more
serious disciplinary action was administered
6.If management discharges or demotes, the employee was warned specifically that
such actions would result unless performance improves
7.Other employees with the same or similar work records were treated in a
consistent manner

Disciplinary Procedures: correct steps

1. Get an initial understanding

2. Investigate thoroughly
3. Invite the employee to a disciplinary meeting
4. Conduct the disciplinary meeting
5. Decide on action to take
6. Confirm the outcome in writing
7. Right to appeal

Disciplinary action can feel quite formal and time-consuming, but it’s important to
follow the procedure correctly to protect yourself from legal claims.
If you have an employee who may have a potential discrimination claim, or who may
be able to bring an unfair dismissal claim, this is even more crucial.
A clear procedure can also help keep matters calm and professional in situations
where emotions are potentially running high.

Step 1 – Get an initial understanding

Establish the facts as soon as you can. Get the employee’s side of the story before
you decide on next steps.
If you determine that the issue is more closely linked to performance or ability rather
than behaviour, following a capability procedure may be more appropriate.
In the case of a minor or first offence, it may be most appropriate to issue an informal
warning, avoiding the need to enter into a formal disciplinary process. This could be
as simple as having a conversation with the employee and following it up with a letter
reflecting what was said.

Step 2 – Investigate thoroughly

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 If the offence is more substantial, or it is not the employee’s first, you may need to
resort to formal procedure.
Begin by gathering all the information you need to establish the facts about the
situation: speak to witnesses, look at any information that may serve as evidence
and hold an investigation meeting with the employee concerned.
Unless you have written this into your disciplinary procedure, the employee doesn’t
have the right to bring a representative to the investigation meeting, and you don’t
have to write to them to invite them to an investigation meeting, as would be the
case for a disciplinary meeting.
Make sure you record all your notes and evidence at this point.
If you’re investigating an instance of possible gross misconduct, it may be
appropriate to suspend the employee while the investigation is in progress.
If you believe there is no case to answer following the investigation, the matter stops
here.
Otherwise, proceed to a formal disciplinary meeting.

Step 3 – Invite the employee to a disciplinary meeting

Invite the employee to a formal disciplinary meeting in writing.

Provide them with notice of the meeting, be sure to advise them of their right to be
accompanied and provide copies of all the evidence you hold against them for their
review.
Make sure the invite explains the conduct that the disciplinary matter will discuss.
Remember that your employee has a right to view and respond to all evidence
before a decision on disciplinary action is made and providing them with key
evidence on the day of the disciplinary meeting is unlikely to be fair.
If the meeting may result in their dismissal, because the matter is so serious (i.e.
gross misconduct) or they are already on a final written warning, you should explain
in the invitation letter that this could be a potential outcome of the meeting.

Step 4 – Conduct the disciplinary meeting

In the disciplinary meeting you’ll need to:

 Check that the employee is aware of their right to be accompanied if they
have not brought anyone with them.
 Run through the allegations you hold against them and invite them to
respond.
 Review the evidence you hold and offer the employee an opportunity to add
any further comments.
 Make sure notes are taken throughout the meeting – ideally you’ll have a
note-taker present. This not only provides a witness to discussions but also means
you can concentrate on running the meeting.

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 If you feel more investigation is needed before you make your decision,
advise the employee that a further meeting is necessary. Ensure you send them any
new evidence you uncover before the meeting takes place.

Step 5 – Decide on action to take

After the meeting, consider all the evidence you now have and whether it’s sufficient
to prove the allegation of misconduct.
In the case where you find the employee innocent, or feel that the behaviour doesn’t
warrant taking further action, you would explain this to the employee and end the
procedure.
If misconduct is proven, the next step is to decide on the appropriate level of
warning.
Consider whether the employee has any previous warnings on file, any mitigating
circumstances and their length of service. Also reflect on whether similar situations
have occurred in your organisation previously and how they have been dealt with to
ensure fairness and consistency.
Your disciplinary policy should detail the levels of warnings in your procedure. You
should have at least two levels before you reach the dismissal stage, with the
exception of gross misconduct where you can progress directly to the dismissal
stage.
Normally, lower level warnings are issued where the misconduct is more minor.
First level of warning
This is usually appropriate for relatively minor issues, or the first issue you have with
an employee. Accompany this with your expectations for their behaviour going
forwards, and the further action you may take should they fail to meet these
expectations.
Final written warning
A final written warning may be applied if there is already a live warning in place, or in
cases of serious misconduct just below the level of gross misconduct, such as
breaching a very important procedure – a ‘first and final warning’.
Dismissal
This penalty can be issued for further misconduct when there is already an active
final written warning on record. In this case, the employee would be entitled to their
contractual notice.
Alternatively, dismissal can be considered for instances of gross misconduct. This
will often result in summary dismissal – immediate dismissal without the entitlement
to notice or notice pay.

Step 6 – Confirm the outcome in writing

Once you have made your decision, confirm it in writing to the employee.
You’ll need to inform them of:
 The nature of the misconduct
 The level of warning they are being issued with, or whether they are being
dismissed

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 How long any warning will remain active?
 If they are place on warning – the necessary changes in behaviour and the
likely consequences of further misconduct
 In the case of a dismissal – the grounds for the dismissal
 Their right to appeal and the timescales they have to do this.

Step 7 – Right to appeal

For the disciplinary to be considered fair, the employee must be given an opportunity
to challenge your decision.
Ideally you will have someone else who can hear this appeal, although this may not
always possible in a small business. If this is the case and you must hear the appeal
yourself, be sure to be as objective as possible.
The appeal meeting should follow the same process as the original disciplinary
meeting.

Small business disciplinary procedures

Disciplinary procedures in small businesses should also follow the ACAS code of
conduct and the essential steps outlined above.
As a small business, it’s easy to think you’re not yet large or established enough to
need a formal disciplinary procedure. But no matter your size, having a documented
procedure in place for dealing with disciplinary issues will make it much easier, and
quicker, for you to resolve issues.
While it might be tempting to try to ignore the misconduct or performance issue you
find yourself facing, in the hope things will resolve themselves, in a small business,
where working environments tend to be more close-knit, any unresolved issues can
quickly be felt by everyone, bringing down the morale of the whole business. Having
a procedure in place to fall back on will help you to address any ideas quickly and
confidently before any bad feelings or inappropriate behaviour starts to impact on the
rest of the workforce.
And no matter your size, if you find yourself facing a tribunal claim following your
handling of a disciplinary situation, the courts will want to see that you have followed
a fair process. If you have no formal, documented process for how you go about
managing these situations, it’s much harder to defend yourself.
Small business disciplinary policy

As a minimum, small businesses should have a disciplinary policy that:

 Is written in simple, clear language
 Is easy to access by all employees

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 Is understood by all employees
 Covers issues such as absence and use of facilities where misconduct may
occur and provides examples of misconduct that would typically lead to disciplinary
action
 Includes examples of gross misconduct that would typically lead to dismissal
without notice
 Explains the action that will be taken if misconduct or gross misconduct has
taken place
Try to manage the issue informally

Depending on the severity of the issue it’s usually best to try to resolve things
informally and quickly before resorting to your formal disciplinary procedure,
especially in a small business, where time and resource is likely to be limited.
Have a private discussion with your employee where you identify the shortcomings
you observed in their performance or behaviour.
Provide them with the opportunity to respond to your observations and discuss ways
they would need to improve to resolve the situation. Make sure that any actions or
targets are clear and understood by the employee, ideally confirming these in writing.
If it becomes evident through the course of your discussion that the issue may be
more serious and formal action is required, be sure to adjourn the meeting until you
can carry out a full investigation and arrange a formal meeting providing the
employee with the opportunity to attend accompanied.
Prevention is better than cure

While it’s impossible to completely mitigate the risk of disciplinary issues arising, you
can take steps do to prevent them occurring.
Of course, making sure all your employees are clear on what your business
considers misconduct in the first place to start. It’s not enough to have these written
in a policy that no one knows about or how to find. You need to make the policy easy
to access and read and ideally you want signed confirmation from your staff that they
have read and understood what levels of behaviour are expected of them and what’s
not permissible.
Secondly, fostering a positive, open work environment, where staff feel listened to
and respected and managers are having regular communication with them, will help
to reduce disgruntled employees behaving inappropriately, or help you identify
potential problems before things escalate.

Tips when taking disciplinary action against an employee

 Keep things confidential – only share information that’s necessary for an

investigation to take place and remind witnesses to keep the matter confidential.

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 Act promptly – the sooner the situation is resolved the better for all parties
involved. Overhanging anxiety and uncertainty could lead to poor performance or
absence amongst employees involved.
 Keep records – it’s vital to document all your conversations and anything you
have used as evidence in order to be able to defend your decision should it be
challenged.
 Be transparent – clearly communicate potential consequences.
 Act calmly and objectively – be careful not to make snap decisions driven
by emotions.
 Avoid arguments – disagreements should be acknowledged and noted
without escalating into an argument.

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