Two focuses of my blog are Organizational/Management and Workplace Discussions. A part of managing a staff is disciplining it when the need arises. The following contributed post is entitled, How Can I Know The Right Time To Discipline Staff.
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Having to discipline someone as an authority figure is never enjoyable, but it is important from time to time. For instance, if you pay someone to attend their job at a certain time each day, but they’re consistently late, well they’re breaching the contract, and a worthwhile reminder, escalating in punitive consequences, will help to deter that behavior or ultimately find someone who will follow that guidance.
After all, if someone has promised you a certain behavior under legally-valid contract, then it’s your right to terminate that relationship or capably, professionally use measures to encourage them to do so.
The last thing you want, however, is to discipline staff every single time they put a small foot wrong. This can deteriorate relations rather quickly, and will also cause your well-meaning employees to be wary of you. Moreover, it’s not just why you discipline, but how you do it that counts. Shouting and screaming at someone is never acceptable, for instance, unless it’s due to a truly reckless act that puts someone at risk, and even then deterring the problem quickly is more important.
In this post, we’ll discuss the correct times to discipline staff, and how to go about that:
Create Easy-To-Follow Policies & Expectations
Establishing clear objectives and regulations from the start is one of the most important steps in disciplining employees successfully. This entails outlining the precise conduct that is required of employees as well as the repercussions for falling short of those standards. You’ll be able to provide employees a clear knowledge of what is expected of them and aid in preventing disciplinary concerns by making this clear from the offset. For example, with a service like Industrial Fire, you can curate essential protocols that always determine exactly how fire prevention and safety measures should be followed. You can then hold anyone accountable that falls out of that practice.
Remain Consistent At All Levels
Being fair and consistent when disciplining personnel is another crucial factor to follow. This means treating each employee fairly and without bias or favoritism. If it’s an executive acting in a poor way, they must be treated in the exact same manner your most part-time, least-authoritative employee will be. Applying sanctions consistently, with objective metrics, will ensure that everyone under your control is held to the same standards. This means that even when you have to let someone go, it would take a bad-faith effort for them to think they had been unfairly wronged.
Record The Discipline Procedure
It’s crucial to record the whole disciplinary procedure, including any verbal or written warnings or other disciplinary measures that were applied. This includes texts and emails. Try to get everything in writing. In the event that an employee contests disciplinary action or if the problem worsens, this paperwork may be used as a backup for you. Keep this confidential and safe of course, because this kind of correspondence should only be broken out if absolutely necessary.
With this advice, you’re sure to discipline staff not only fairly, but correctly, ensuring bad practice never continues for long.
