Employee Conduct, Termination, & Progressive Discipline

Policy Summary and Objectives 

A progressive discipline policy is a set of predetermined procedures in an organization designed and mandated to provide a step-wise corrective action process that prevents a recurrence of undesirable performance issues and employee conduct. The policy highlights the steps taken to address employee misconduct. As such, its primary objective is to take progressively stringent actions when an employee fails to meet certain standards pertinent to performance or when he or she fails to correct a problem relating to his or her behavior and conduct at work following subsequent warnings and time to do so.

Notably, it is recognizable that there is great potential for staff or individuals to err within the company premises and some may fail to follow the policies by the book strictly. As such, this policy is meant to ensure every employee gets an equal chance to amend their behavior and conduct and possibly assist them in this process. In addition, the policy aims to ensure there is equity in evaluating and punishing offenses of the same magnitude across the board guided by explicit investigations of the same.

Disclaimer 

No provision in this policy accords immunity or contractual rights to any employee regarding discipline regardless of his or her rank. Consequently, no individual should interpret, construe, or assume that this policy is changing the employee-at-will relationship between the organization and its employees.

Scope 

As noted in the disclaimer above, the policy applies to all employees and will be consolidated as part of the company policy. The discipline issues addressed or subject to the full extent of the policy include attendance (lateness), employee conduct (including aspects such as abusive language, sexual harassment, theft, fraud, embezzlement, forgery, and other precarious vices deemed infringing on honesty by the HR), and performance.

Progressive Steps 

SHRM (2018) highlights certain fundamental aspects, steps, or procedures pertaining to progressive discipline policy. These include a written warning, verbal warning, suspension, and finally termination. These steps will be crucial in adding to the inclusion criteria of this policy. In essence, this policy has been consolidated in liaison with the HR, and since it is implicative to all staff, the HR should be involved in all the disciplining cases in accordance with the job descriptions mandated and stipulated by the organization for the position. As such, the following are the main aspects of the policy;

Verbal Warning 

This should be the first course of action when dealing with any of the less implicating issues above such as poor attendance, performance, or other major misconducts such as abusive language or sexual harassment. Since sexual harassment has different levels, the HR has the autonomy of determining the severity of the offense and whether to apply this step or skip to a more serious one. However, the HR should fulfill this step without bigotry and in private. According to Trevino and Nelson (2016), employees should never be criticized in front of other employees not only to avoid embarrassment but also vindictiveness. Subsequently, the warned employees should be provided with a copy of this policy specifying the particular regulation they violated.

Informal Meeting 

With regards to the previous step, the supervisor will convene a meeting with the employee. Subsequently, a written documentation of the verbal warning or counseling will be provided where the employee will be required to sign. The supervisor will also discuss corrective actions regarding the misdeeds of the employee based on actionable feedback. Here, the supervisor could act independently by reviewing the mentoring or coaching methods on how to avoid repeating the misdeed.

Formal or Written Reprimand 

If the supervisor spots misconducts such as sexual harassment, theft, or extreme abusive language, he or she should fully involve the HR or senior management for further action. Subsequently, the HR should issue a written reprimand to the employee. The warning should be clear and succinct that failure to take corrective action within a specified timeframe (at the discretion of the HR) will result in the invocation of step four below.

Formal Disciplinary Meeting 

This step is meant to fact-find the situation at hand. In essence, the employee will be invited to a disciplinary meeting chaired by the HR alongside the supervisor, and the Department Head where he or she will be given the opportunity to explain his or her side regarding the issue. As such, the HR as mandated and predefined by the job description must investigate the claims and the entire situation in general. Moreover, the HR should concisely communicate that this is the final step before serious action or penalty is given. This step can also result in the suspension of the employee to allow the HR to conduct further investigations before moving to the next step.

Penalties 

Following the completion of an investigation by the HR, the employee should be recalled in the disciplinary meeting where proper feedback is provided on why he or she has been penalized and why the specific penalty has been preferred in line with the company policy. In the case of serious offenses such as fraud or forgery, the HR reserves the right of demoting the employee, suspending him or her without pay, or skipping to the next step (termination). This will depend on how much damage the employee has caused to the company. Notably, this penalty will be applied uniformly and justly to all employees. However, if penalties such as suspension or demotion are preferred, the employee will be given a considerable amount of time, again at the discretion of the HR, to amend his or her ways lest step six takes effect.

Termination 

Employees who consistently violate this policy and the overall company policy whether inadvertently or knowingly are subject to the full extent of this step. Nonetheless, this step will involve investigations by the HR and legalities as specified by the company lawyers for appropriate action to ensure the termination is fair and without prejudice. For this step to take full effect, there must be a just cause such as severe violations or misconduct such as violence, extreme sexual violation, embezzlement, defrauding the organization for financial gains, or forgeries. For such serious felonies and offenses, the company reserves all rights to terminate an employee without consultation of any other step pertinent to the provisions of this policy and without infringing the rights of the employee. This section of the policy has been guided by Avery Foster v. Federal Express Corp. case of 2006. According to Lawson (2006), Foster was terminated for falsifying an employee timecard as just cause, and the case was dismissed on the rationale that there were no predefined policies or guarantees of employment upon recruitment. The same concept is applicable in this policy since there are no guarantees of employment upon misconduct and neither is a single employee’s status transcendent to this policy.

Policy Aspects 

Senior management, supervisors, and the HR are advised to provide a clear explanation for every progressive step invoked and the overall progressive discipline procedure. However, some issues, especially those related to performance should not be misconstrued as part of the misconducts subject to serious action. Providing feedback to the employees regarding their performance is an essential and fundamental part of the company culture and policy fully expressed in performance reviews and assessments. However, performance becomes a serious issue subject to the progressive steps from step three downwards if the employee consistently demonstrates poor performance even after being subjected to the first and second step.

For every disciplinary action taken, the HR will give written documentation of the same for reference purposes. At the discretion of the HR and senior management, each progressive step could be repeated a few times before moving forward to the next step. For instance, since the supervisor is regularly in contact with the employees and is aware of their actions, he might call several informal meetings to coach or mentor them before involving the senior management or the HR to issue a formal reprimand. However, senior management beyond the HR can decide to repeat a specific step or several steps if they deem it necessary to do so, especially if they conceive that the step was unsatisfactorily executed the first time. The management can also repeat a step if they see signs of improvement in their employees or if conditions and metrics have changed enough to make the repetition of the step necessary.

Terminations are an option of last resort and should only be considered when all other options have failed or if it is the single best solution to a problem. As noted by Trevino and Nelson (2016), managers should take certain steps to make terminations easier for both the employee and the management. Moreover, the terminations should only be pursued in line with the organization’s values and in the presence of a witness. The witness can be the employee’s supervisor who witnessed or raised a red flag regarding the misconduct or a colleague who is fully aware of the situation at hand.

Right to appeal 

Employees who feel their termination or penalty was harsh, biased and unfair based on race/ethnicity, gender, disability, or religion have the right to appeal by filing a copy of the appeal to the HR and the senior management. However, this policy is subject to periodical updates, and as such, a successful update will render all policies and regulations thereafter transcendent to the previous ones, which will become null and void.

Avoiding Progressive Discipline 

Disciplining an employee is an uncomfortable action. As such, it is both the responsibility of the employee and the management to avoid the same. For the management part, the following measures will be taken to avoid progressive discipline.

Communication of policies and the codes of conduct succinctly to all recruits.

Training supervisors and managers to abide, communicate, and enforce the policy. A manager should lead by example (Trevino and Nelson, 2016).

Implementation and maintenance of an ethical company culture hinged on respect and engagement.

Using performance appraisals and reviews to address issues before they exacerbate to major problems.

Announcement of any change or update in the policy to all employees in formal meetings.

References

Lawson, D.M. (2006). Opinion And Order Granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment and Denying Motions in Limine as Moot. United States District Court Eastern District Of Michigan Northern Division . Retrieved from https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-mied-1_04-cv-10325/pdf/USCOURTS-mied-1_04-cv-10325-2.pdf 

SHRM. (2018). Progressive Discipline Policy - Single Disciplinary Process. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/policies/pages/progressivedisciplinepolicy.aspx 

Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016).  Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right . John Wiley & Sons. Print.