“Employees do not start their career to become problem employees.”

A tough conversation with an employee will happen with every leader. Progressive intervention can restore the employee to the standards the organization desires or, if necessary, develop a case for disciplinary action up to and including termination. Many wrongful termination lawsuits can be avoided through a good process for discipline and, when necessary, termination. The following steps provide guidelines for disciplinary action or, more importantly, employee intervention.

First, start early so the problem does not grow. The supervisor needs to provide clear communication about their concern with the employee’s work. In a survey of human resource officers, one of the most common complaints were supervisors that want an employee disciplined and, when the HR officer pulls the employee’s personnel file, they find glowing evaluations or – none at all! If this is the case the supervisor has not done their work.

Second, listen to the people involved. The employee needs to be heard by the supervisor prior to discipline. There may be a good reason for the difference in their action as to what the supervisor expected.

Seneca, an ancient Greek philosopher said: “He who judges a matter without hearing the other side, though he decides justly, cannot be considered just.”

In Person

Tough messages must be delivered in person.

Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages, conducted studies on nonverbal communication. These studies found that with ambiguous messages the receiver uses body language to understand 55% of the message, the tone of the message for 38%, and the words themselves only 7%. Ninety-three percent of communication can occur without words.

A tough message about someone’s career needs to be delivered in a face-to-face environment to avoid misinterpretation. These moments define the difference between leaders and managers. Managers deliver tough messages through email or inter-office memos. Leaders look them in the eye to provide the respect the employee deserves. They might also learn something in the ensuing dialogue.

Someone to Present with You in the Meeting

Whenever you have a disciplinary meeting have a silent witness with you. Their role will be to sit there, remain silent and take notes. Tell the person you are meeting with what this individual’s role will be and then proceed. This role becomes critical as it can eliminate someone’s “misinterpretation” of what you said. You can eliminate these misinterpretations which may be intentional or unintentional.

Steps for progressive discipline/intervention

Whenever you correct an employee’s behavior, focus your efforts to restore the employee through intervention. We apply this “progressively” so if the first step does not succeed we “progress” to the next step. Sometimes a behavior has been so egregious that immediate termination becomes the best course but for most cases, a good path to follow includes these steps:

Step 1: Verbal Reprimand

Tell the employee your concern. When you return to your office, make a note of the conversation and include the date and your expectations for the future. You can strengthen your verbal reprimand by sending the employee an email of the conversation and “confirm” the conversation. This extra step makes the Verbal Reprimand more powerful for the future.

Step 2: Written Reprimand

Place your concerns in writing and meet with the employee. In the reprimand include the facts, the rules which were broken, and the impact on the organization. Review the reprimand with the employee and let them know your future expectations. Allow them a chance to respond to you in the meeting. If they bring up something you did not consider, you can tell them you will consider this and get back to them. Once you feel you have all the facts, meet again with the employee and deliver the written reprimand. Make certain you place the memo in their personnel file.

Step 3: Suspension without pay

If the employee has not improved, consider a suspension without pay. At this point have your human resource department fully involved. Make certain your written language has been clear and can stand the test of a court. You can suspend an employee for a short period of time – such as three days or a longer period such as thirty days or more.

Step 4: Termination

An employee termination should never be a surprise to them. They should have had a couple of verbal warnings or written reprimands in their personnel file at this point. Make certain your human resources department or legal counsel assist you in this step.

Tough Conversation Prevention

A good leader will take the facts, rules and impact an employee has in the workplace and deal with them immediately. Tell the employee what you believe the facts to be. Then listen to the employee’s response – there may be more to the story that the supervisor did not see.

Preventive Step 1

The supervisor might privately say to the employee, “I saw you come in late this morning. This is the third time this week. What is going on that you are late?” This opens the dialogue for the employee to respond. The supervisor might find new information such as the employee dropped something off in another department and came in early! If you don’t ask, you don’t know.

Preventive Step 2

If there is a problem, the next step will be for the supervisor to communicate what rules were broken. The supervisor might say, “Our work rules are for us to start at 8:00 am. If you are late, please call my office and let me know in the future.”

Preventive Step 3

Let the employee know how the issue affects others in the workplace. A supervisor’s comment might be, “I received your report three days late. As a result, we missed a deadline and now our department might miss a funding opportunity. Your lateness affected our department’s budget.”

These three preventive steps applied to good communication will help restore the employee or provide documentation that you, as an employer, have performed due diligence to provide clear instruction prior to dismissal. Every situation will be different and it is recommended that whenever you plan to terminate an employee, review it with your legal counsel.

When the employee was hired, did they plan to fail? People can get off track or go down the wrong path but it will always be doubtful if an employee deliberately plans to fail, especially in their livelihood. Engaged supervisors will discover problems early and take corrective action. Good communication and treating people with dignity and respect should be important to the employee – and the employer.

*************************************

About the Author

David P Bugay PhD

Before he became the Vice Chancellor Human Resources for South Orange County Community College District, Dr Bugay spent over a decade in other higher education positions as well as almost a decade in K-12 education as principal and administrator. An organisational behaviourist, he has served on the boards for the Association of California Community College Administrators, Association of Chief Human Resource Officers and International Higher Education Teaching Learning. He is a frequent presenter on topics such as tough decisions, managing change, hiring and communication. His latest book, Backbonology: Tough Decisions at Work, is scheduled to launch in early 2018. For more information, check out his website at www.docdthewriter.com