A very stressful part of being in a leadership position will be when you are faced with having to issue a written warning letter to an employee in an effort to insure productivity stays and high and morale is maintained. Although it is very hard to believe, but the fact is that your staff is paying close attention to see what you will do if someone is breaking the rules.
Employees from the beginning of time will push the rules if allowed to. This means that if they see that you will do nothing when an employee shows up late, or worse is insubordinate, it sends a strong message that anything goes. Sooner, versus later, productivity will drop and chaos will set in, if you stand by and do nothing.
Before ever producing a written warning letter for anyone on your staff it is very crucial that you take the time to produce and inform everyone of what your rules are so that there is no questions about them. One of the most effective ways to do this is to produce an employee handbook that details all your policies and the penalties if they are violated. Suggested policies could be misconduct, attendance, disrespectful behavior, tardiness, stealing, etc.
After producing your employee handbook it is just as important to insure everyone gets their personal copy of it and then signs for it. You will also be encouraged to learn that you can obtain some very good employee handbook programs online for under $50. However, if you are so inclined you can spend a lot more money if you are looking for something more complicated with all the frills.
Insuring that you are treating everyone fairly and consistently is so important in any employee discipline program. So many legal actions are taken by an employee that is treated differently than someone else for doing the same thing. Some supervisors do their best to try and explain their actions by telling everyone that one employee performs so much better than the other; however, if they both violated the same rule you better treat them the same. Enforcing your policies selectively will end in disaster.
Facts and facts only should be contained within the written warning letter itself. Never use words that refer to emotions like "I think" or "I believe." When finally sitting down and composing the written warning it should have the following elements; what rule they violated, specifically how they violated it, if they have been disciplined before, how they must improve, and then what will happen to them if they violate the policy again.
One consideration you should make as you put your disciplinary program together is to begin with the least severe type of discipline, and then if someone continues to violate your policies progress to more severe punishments. Of course there will be those times that you will immediately have to terminate someone, for instance like fighting. When you are designing your employee handbook it is a good time to think about those choices. You should be just fine provided you insure that you are treating your entire staff fairly and consistently.
Employees from the beginning of time will push the rules if allowed to. This means that if they see that you will do nothing when an employee shows up late, or worse is insubordinate, it sends a strong message that anything goes. Sooner, versus later, productivity will drop and chaos will set in, if you stand by and do nothing.
Before ever producing a written warning letter for anyone on your staff it is very crucial that you take the time to produce and inform everyone of what your rules are so that there is no questions about them. One of the most effective ways to do this is to produce an employee handbook that details all your policies and the penalties if they are violated. Suggested policies could be misconduct, attendance, disrespectful behavior, tardiness, stealing, etc.
After producing your employee handbook it is just as important to insure everyone gets their personal copy of it and then signs for it. You will also be encouraged to learn that you can obtain some very good employee handbook programs online for under $50. However, if you are so inclined you can spend a lot more money if you are looking for something more complicated with all the frills.
Insuring that you are treating everyone fairly and consistently is so important in any employee discipline program. So many legal actions are taken by an employee that is treated differently than someone else for doing the same thing. Some supervisors do their best to try and explain their actions by telling everyone that one employee performs so much better than the other; however, if they both violated the same rule you better treat them the same. Enforcing your policies selectively will end in disaster.
Facts and facts only should be contained within the written warning letter itself. Never use words that refer to emotions like "I think" or "I believe." When finally sitting down and composing the written warning it should have the following elements; what rule they violated, specifically how they violated it, if they have been disciplined before, how they must improve, and then what will happen to them if they violate the policy again.
One consideration you should make as you put your disciplinary program together is to begin with the least severe type of discipline, and then if someone continues to violate your policies progress to more severe punishments. Of course there will be those times that you will immediately have to terminate someone, for instance like fighting. When you are designing your employee handbook it is a good time to think about those choices. You should be just fine provided you insure that you are treating your entire staff fairly and consistently.
About the Author:
Want to find out more about how to write a written warning letter, then visit Gregory Covey's site. You can also pick up a free employee discipline notice form to assist you in your disciplinary program.
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