We are trying to make better sense of our discipline system. After people get a verbal and then a written warning, we suspend and ultimately fire them if the misconduct continues. But the suspension seems more like a gift than a punishment to many of our workers. What do you recommend for the “serious” steps in a discipline program? What do most employers do? How can we get our employees to shape up?
— Carmella C., HR Specialist in Fresno
Most companies have progressive disciplinary policies for the right reason: to provide managers and HR with the tools they need to make fair, consistent, and legally defensible employment decisions. Progressive disciplinary policies also let employees know what the consequences are for infractions or performance issues of varying degrees of severity.
I encourage you to analyze your discipline process before overhauling it or including more “serious” steps. One flaw in most disciplinary policies is that the focus is on punishment as opposed to rehabilitation. Here are several questions to consider when looking at your discipline program:
- What are the most common reasons employees are disciplined? For example, is most disciplinary action taken for minor reasons such as tardiness? Or, are more egregious matters such as harassment, insubordination, safety violations, or theft the problem?
Determine whether themes or patterns exist. If they do, training might be in order. For example, people often break rules because they don’t know about them or because the rules have not been clearly written or explained. An employee who tells off-color jokes may be unaware that the company has a policy against these jokes—and the employer would need to make sure employees get trained about its policy.
- Why do some employees see the suspension as a gift? Are you clearly communicating the severity of the situation to the employee? This is not the time to be vague or assume the employee already understands the consequences of his or her conduct. Be direct, and if termination is an option, say “You will be terminated if you violate the policy or continue with the inappropriate conduct.” If you are direct and clear about the consequences, and the employee still takes that casual attitude toward a suspension, it may be best to terminate the person.
- Is there a mitigating reason for the misconduct? Too often discipline is handed out without finding out more about why the conduct occurred. Ask the employee why he or she is not taking the job, the discipline, or continued employment seriously.
For example, let’s say you have an employee who is consistently late and receives a verbal and then a written warning. The conduct doesn’t change and you are about to suspend the person. However, you have never asked the employee what was going on. If you asked, perhaps you would learn that the employee has an ongoing or intermittent family or medical issue that is causing him or her to be late. Punishing someone in that situation is typically not going to improve the conduct. In fact, the time off may be more valuable to the employee than the compensation, and the employee may have legitimate legal rights to take the time off or use intermittent leave.
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Do managers and HR dole out discipline consistently? Some managers may use strict discipline immediately while others are lax and let things simmer until the poor or inappropriate conduct reaches a boiling point. Inconsistent discipline does not send a clear message.
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Do you consistently fire employees who repeat the prohibited conduct after the suspension? As when dealing with a young child, if there is no real consequence, behavior does not change. If you don’t terminate right after a violation, your discipline policy has no teeth —and this could be why suspensions aren’t taken seriously.
You need to look at all the reasons why you don’t terminate people after a violation that follows a suspension. Is it your workplace culture? Are you afraid that employees will quit? These are never good reasons to continue to employ those who disrupt your workplace.
Ask yourself, from a business and corporate culture standpoint: Do you want to continue to retain an employee who is not affected by the disciplinary process? Your answer to this question will be helpful in deciding how to proceed.
- Is suspension without pay really the best approach? I strongly oppose sending employees home without pay and firmly believe this kind of disciplinary strategy, as you already have found out, is usually ineffective. Why? If there are mitigating reasons for the problem, the employer may be adding more stress to an already stressful situation. Sending someone home and docking pay, which can result in the employee having trouble paying bills or supporting his or her family, does not provide the guidance or support for someone to turn around poor behavior. Even if there are no mitigating reasons for the inappropriate conduct, docking pay seldom turns around poor attitude or morale.
To sum up, my advice is that instead of adding more serious steps to your discipline program, consider substituting steps that work and changing the focus of the discipline.
Paid Decision-Making Leave
Another strategy for improving employee behavior is using “paid decision-making leave,” a program described by performance management consultant Dick Grote in his book Discipline Without Punishment. This method stresses making problem employees accountable for their actions. Essentially, such an employee is coached and counseled regarding performance and company or job standards. If the conduct reaches an unacceptable level, the employee receives a verbal reminder to correct the problem. The manager takes an active role in assisting the employee to remedy the misconduct.
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If the verbal reminder does not work, another meeting is held with the employee, presenting documentation of the problem behavior. Afterward, if the employee again repeats the unwanted conduct, he or she is sent home on paid decision-making leave. This novel approach focuses on putting the responsibility on the employee.
The employee gets one day at home to think about whether he or she can live with the company’s policy and follow the rules. There’s no additional worry about paying bills or losing income. An employee on decision-making leave is solely charged with thinking about his or her conduct and continued employment. If the employee decides he or she cannot live with the employer’s rules, you both would agree to terminate employment. However, an employee who returns and commits to abiding by the rules must agree that any additional misstep will result in immediate termination. If the employee corrects the behavior, many employers would give the person the opportunity down the road to have the written documentation removed from his or her personnel file.
Conclusion
The upshot is, figure out the kind of workplace culture you want to foster and the reasons you have a disciplinary process. If you want to help employees improve their poor conduct, have a tight system in place that is set up to quickly change the behavior, not just to punish.
Allison West, Esq., SPHR, is principal of Employment Practices Specialists, LLC, an employment law training and consulting firm in Pacifica.