One of the most miserable parts about being in a supervisory role is that there will come a time when you must issue a written warning letter in order to make sure your staff's productivity and morale stays high. No matter what you believe, employees know when someone is not following the rules within their department. The morale of the staff will drop if you do not act immediately.
Ever since Adam and Eve were put in the garden employees have pushed the rules. Therefore, if they notice that nothing happens to an employee that calls in sick all the time they will quickly understand that it is ok when rules are broken. So if you do nothing there is a good chance that your production rate will fall dramatically.
One of the very first and most important things you must do before ever considering issuing a written warning letter to an employee is to inform your staff of your workplace rules. The very best way to accomplish this is to create an employee handbook that covers each one of those rules and what the consequence are if they are not followed. These rules should include topics like attendance, misconduct, sexual harassment, discrimination, insubordination, stealing, fighting, etc.
One very important factor after you have produced an employee handbook is to make sure that everyone signs for their own copy of it. If you do a quick search online you will learn that you can get a simple template for an employee handbook for a little under fifty dollars. On the other hand if you really want to get something with all the bells and whistles you can spend much more.
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.
The actual written warning letter should contain the facts and only the facts. Do you're very best to leave any emotional words out, such as, "I feel!" The written warning should contain what the violation is (like tardiness), the date(s) that the violation occurred, the specifics of what occurred, if there is any prior discipline, what the employee must do to improve, and what the consequences will be if the employee doesn't improve.
Beginning with the least amount of disciplinary action and progressing to penalties that are more severe, finally ending with termination is a suggested way handling your disciplinary program. There are some instances that will demand immediately terminating someone if they violate a policy, such as fighting or stealing. As you develop your employee handbook it is a good time to make sure you consider all your options. Then, provided you follow your own policies and insure that you are treating all employees consistently and fairly you should be just fine.
Ever since Adam and Eve were put in the garden employees have pushed the rules. Therefore, if they notice that nothing happens to an employee that calls in sick all the time they will quickly understand that it is ok when rules are broken. So if you do nothing there is a good chance that your production rate will fall dramatically.
One of the very first and most important things you must do before ever considering issuing a written warning letter to an employee is to inform your staff of your workplace rules. The very best way to accomplish this is to create an employee handbook that covers each one of those rules and what the consequence are if they are not followed. These rules should include topics like attendance, misconduct, sexual harassment, discrimination, insubordination, stealing, fighting, etc.
One very important factor after you have produced an employee handbook is to make sure that everyone signs for their own copy of it. If you do a quick search online you will learn that you can get a simple template for an employee handbook for a little under fifty dollars. On the other hand if you really want to get something with all the bells and whistles you can spend much more.
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.
The actual written warning letter should contain the facts and only the facts. Do you're very best to leave any emotional words out, such as, "I feel!" The written warning should contain what the violation is (like tardiness), the date(s) that the violation occurred, the specifics of what occurred, if there is any prior discipline, what the employee must do to improve, and what the consequences will be if the employee doesn't improve.
Beginning with the least amount of disciplinary action and progressing to penalties that are more severe, finally ending with termination is a suggested way handling your disciplinary program. There are some instances that will demand immediately terminating someone if they violate a policy, such as fighting or stealing. As you develop your employee handbook it is a good time to make sure you consider all your options. Then, provided you follow your own policies and insure that you are treating all employees consistently and fairly you should be just fine.
About the Author:
Learn more about how to discipline an employee. Stop by Gregory Covey's site where you can receive free discipline form and how to use it.
