Conduct

Unfortunately, there can sometimes be an incident at work, where an employee has possibly damaged property or acted inappropriately in the workplace. The disciplinary procedure is a fundamental process, that allows managers to achieve their desired outcome in the best interest of their business. 

Here are a few useful tips to get the most out of the procedure:

• Decide “the cast” (our term to define who will be involved and when), there will need to be an investigation manager, disciplinary leader and appeals manager (usually someone of a senior level). 
• Once you have identified the issue, it is important to consider if the employee will need to be suspended. This should only happen in gross misconduct cases, where the is a substantial reason due to the risk of the employee cause harm to themselves or others. 
• Ensure there has been a full investigation around the allegations against the employee, this is dependent on the type of misconduct. This could be gathering: 

• return to work forms
• data from clocking in and out machines 
• witness statements
• photographic evidence 

• Invite the employee to a disciplinary with at least 48 hours’ notice. This letter has important legal wording that will include any evidence and detail the rights of the employee.  
• Hold the hearing and decide the outcome. You should consider the policy wording, any current active warnings on file for the employee, length of service and consistency to ensure the sanction is fair. The outcome needs to be in writing and can range from a first written warning to summary dismissal. 
• The employee does have the right to appeal on the following four grounds: 

• The outcome is too severe
• any part of the disciplinary procedure was wrong or unfair
• dismissed for an unfair reason
• there is new evidence to show