Employee Discipline

This section presents a sometimes necessary, yet difficult step in the human resources management process.  Studies show that 80% of your performance challenges can be attributed to less than 20% of your total employees.

This 20% of employees who are not meeting performance expectations can be found in two forms:

With the advent of the American Disabilities Act, and the role of EAPs in discipline, it would behoove an organization to have this cost-effective benefit.

Before engaging in employee discipline, you should ensure that you have followed due process.

First review the Prevent Litigation Checklist
Before engaging in the corrective action, you must ensure that you have followed due process if you intend to sustain a lawful termination.

Can you answer these questions in the affirmative?

• Have I clearly communicated job expectations?  Is there a job description?
• Did I provide a proper orientation to the employee?
• Did I provide training to the employee ?
• Did I provide regular performance feedback?
• Did I remove the obstacles that may be impacting job performance?
• Have I explained the consequences for non-performance?
• Am I following the policies and procedures outlined in my employee handbook?

These questions will be addressed at some point of the termination process. Let’s hope it is not occurring by a plaintiff’s attorney on the witness stand.  Cover your tracks today or pay the piper later. If you have faithfully followed our recommendations in OneStop HR and created the right HR handbook, the right hiring systems, the right coaching model, the right HR practices and the right level of integrity, then you can minimize the impact of litigation and potential unionization. Here are some tools for your review.

Tools

All Forms and Training Tools are for educational purposes only. They are NOT to be used without the APPROVAL of Dr. Larry Bienati or an attorney!

The Art of Corrective Discipline
This comprehensive article provides a step-by-step process for implementing a successful due process system in your organization.  We provide a sample discipline policy, sample corrective notification forms, sample termination checklists, and the support material on the psychology of terminations.

Rehabilitating the Problem Employee
This landmark article follows the original research of Dr. Larry Bienati.   Members learn the fine art of rehabilitating problem employee performance by developing bulletproof performance action plans.

Sample Corrective Action Form  
A sample of a form to be used to document performance behavior and expectations.   This is a part of the Corrective Discipline article.
Sample Corrective Action Plans.  Samples of original action plans to correct various skills areas. These templates can be tweaked to your organizational needs.   Coming Soon

The Guide to Developing Management and Employee Skills
A journey through development of various skill sets for employees and management.

Conducting a Lawful Discharge Checklist    
This 20 point checklist provides questions one should consider to ensure a solid "due process" termination.

Labor/Management Relations 
This article outlines the process of maintaining non-union status.  Also, it provides information on how to handle a union organizing drive. Coming Soon

Release Statement
This sample compromise and release statement can prevent further legal action against your firm following a difficult separation.  This tool should be reviewed by a labor attorney prior to use as these statements require some tricky legal review.  The OneStop HR template can save hundreds of dollars in legal fees to the subscriber by doing most of the legwork yourself and then deferring to a confirming phone call or e-mail transfer to ensure the final document is legally correct.   Without legal review, the subscriber will be using this document at their own risk.

Copyright © OneStopHR^®, Inc., 1998