Good morning everyone, this is Carla Dabik from Human Resource Techniques and this morning we're going to be talking about disciplining for results. We do have an audience here and I thank you for attending. If there are any questions you have during this presentation, feel free to ask them and there'll also be some time at the end for additional questions. So let's get started. Basically there are two types of definition, two types of discipline, two definitions for discipline. One is training to ensure proper behavior, it's a noun, it means to train. The other, teaching someone obedience is more like a verb, to teach someone to obey rules and behave in an acceptable way. So let's start with that premise. Today's topic, we're going to talk about different items that are available to you when you either need to teach or to train an employee to act properly in the workplace. We'll talk about mandated company policies, different processes and procedures you may have, the valuable tool called a job description. What you can do as a precursor to documented discipline, disciplinary cushions, cushions to me are so important because they help you approach a subject that you might be having some difficulty approaching with an employee, helping you learn how to develop a plan of action, using disciplinary leaves and last chance agreements, types of disciplinary documentation that is available to you and wording that's very important to have on all disciplinary documents. Let's start with mandated policies. If you have an employee handbook and any portion of your work staff is non-union, it's really important to have an at will policy in there stating that you have the ability as an employer to terminate someone with or without notice or clause. That's not to say that you're not going to use discipline, it's just an extra protection method for you as an employer. An EEO policy as well as a harassment and discrimination policy will also help you be able to address inappropriate behavior in the workplace because we know there are so many protected classifications of people. An immigration policy basically will allow your employees to know that they need to be legally authorized to work in the United States in order to work for you. Workplace violence policies, those talk about a variety of things including weapons in the workplace, what is and is not acceptable behavior in the workplace surrounding issues of violence. And for those of you who don't know, OSHA has recently come out with some new guidelines on active shooter response in the workplace. Anyone who wants a sample procedure, please let me know. I'll be happy to send one to you or there will be one available at AED for you. The one that I have is published through New Jersey and it's a very good procedure. It's a fill in the blank type of a procedure for active shooters in the workplace. And then timekeeping practices, that is another mandated policy that will help you be able to talk up to your employees about when they're clocking in, when they're clocking out, when they're leaving, items like that. Safety policies, more policies for you to have in place to be able to properly discipline your employees for results would be attendance, safety, personal protective use. There's a company in Jasper, Indiana called Jasper Engines and Transmissions and they have a policy in place that says employees have to wear safety glasses out on the shop floor. If you don't have your safety glasses on the first time that they see you, they'll give you a spare pair. The second time they don't see you with safety glasses, you're fired. And this is very effective for all the other employees because they see that the company actually takes this seriously. Another policy that many employers have in place is dress code, not only safety dress but what's appropriate dress in the workplace for the types of positions that people do. Solicitation is a very important policy especially if you are non-union shop or non-union workplace. Having a solicitation policy in place will allow you to prevent employees from posting notices about any type of union organization activities that they might be involved in. They wouldn't be able to bring that into the workplace. Any property in time, how you allow your employees to use property if they need to get permission, if they're not allowed to take any property off the premises and also time. And when I say time, if employees are using time at work to surf the internet or use their cell phones or read books or do other things that is not really work related, well that's kind of theft. So you want to address what is and what is not appropriate use of company time in the workplace. Just touched on cell phone use. Also if you have drivers and I suspect several of you have drivers, what can and can they not do while driving? Do they have to be hands free in the car? Do they have to pull over? What are your rules surrounding their driving activities and the use of cell phones? Computer use, another important policy. What is allowed? What isn't allowed? Can employees download items? Can they not? What's going on there? And then any additional workplace expectations that you might have. Could be a variety of items such as filling out documentation properly or using drugs or alcohol in the workplace which I'm sure none of you allow. Then another good tool to have on hand when you're talking about disciplining employees for results are processes and procedures. What processes do you use to train and how do you train employees on processes? Companies who have a systematic way of training employees generally find that they're able to manage their employees' behavior surrounding efficiencies and processes and work getting done properly better than companies that don't have that standardized training process in place. Then there are also standard operating procedures for a variety of things that you do in the workplace whether it's filling out online data or updating a system on hand or working with a customer at the front desk or customer service or delivering items to the workplace to the job site. Remember standard operating procedures that you have. There's probably also job orders and work orders. What's important to see on that job order? What's important to look at? Where will they find information on many of your forms? And then again safety considerations, very, very important in the construction and heavy equipment industry. Job descriptions. How many of you have job descriptions? How many of you out there have job descriptions? I ask that question because I really, really enjoy job descriptions because they list that clear set of responsibilities and tasks. They allow the manager and the employee to both have the same idea of what the job is. And so many times frustration happens in the workplace because the employee thinks they're supposed to be doing one thing and the manager or supervisor thinks they're supposed to be doing something else. So making sure that that employee and the manager both have the same understanding of the job is critical when you want to make sure that you're disciplining someone correctly. There are other duties as needed to meet the company goals and departmental goals. That's that line on that job description that says, you know what, even though this is typically what your job is going to look like, there are many, many other things that we might ask you to do from time to time to make sure that all of our needs are being met. Most companies have jobs that aren't just a cookie cutter job. They might have three or four or five hats that that employee needs to wear. And so making sure that you have that other duties as needed to meet company goals is very important. I'm still waiting to see how many of you have job descriptions, but we'll talk about that at the end. Before you start the process of documenting formalized discipline, I like to use a verbal warning. It's more of a coaching opportunity. And so many times I hear employers or I see an employer's form and at the top of the form it says verbal warning or it says warning and one of the boxes is verbal. Well if you think about it, if it's verbal, it shouldn't be written down, at least not on a formalized form. If you want that first step, call it something other than verbal. If it's a verbal warning, it should be just that. It should be verbal. It shouldn't be written down anywhere. When using coaching or a verbal warning, you want to talk to the employee as soon as the problem is recognized. You don't want to let it linger. You want to approach the employee and talk to that employee. But don't talk to the employee in front of others. Make sure you pull that employee off to the side and talk to them in a reasonable and quiet setting. Much better to do that than talk to the employee with others around because that can be very humiliating for that employee. You also want to approach each problem separately. The employee might become overwhelmed if there are three or four things that you want to talk with that employee about at the same time. Typically if an employee is having a problem in one area, if you address that area and only that area, they may get a comfort level when they've solved that problem and they've got a better handle on that, that some of their other disciplinary or behavioral issues would go away because they're more comfortable now in their own skin. So try and solve one problem at a time. Don't try and jump on everything at once. You need to be seen by your employee as a coach and their friend and their protector, not somebody who's trying to create a gotcha moment. If you do put off that verbal conversation with the employee, all that means is that you're going to get more frustrated. It's going to be more difficult for you to approach that employee in the future because at least in a way that's positive and constructive because you're just going to be getting angrier and angrier and angrier that the problem isn't going away. So that becomes more when you finally do approach the employee, it's not as productive as it could be because you're coming at it from a place of frustration instead of a place of wanting to help that employee improve. There you go. My slide wouldn't go forward for a minute, but now it has. So another thing I want to talk to you about this morning is disciplinary cushions. Cushions are just a great, great way to open up a conversation without creating any hostility with the employee. Sometimes a manager or a supervisor gets frustrated because they don't know how to approach a problem and they just kind of put their head in the sand and think, well, I told him about it and it's just not happening and maybe if I ignore it it'll go away or I told him about it and he's not listening and I don't know what to do. So that frustration sets in. A cushion can help you avoid that frustration in a big way. So these are some of the cushions that you can use. If I had to pick one area that needs improvement it would be accounting. You can use this and increase the number. So you could say if I had to pick two areas that need improving it would be A or B. Another thing that you might want to say is I've identified a problem area that I'd like you to work on and then start talking about what that problem area is. And again, you could increase this to a couple or three areas if needed. But again, don't pile on, just do one at a time. Another great line to use with an employee to open up a conversation about discipline is we have a problem and I need you to solve it. This is something that you might say when an employee is choosing not to follow a work rule. Maybe it's attendance. Maybe you have a rule that they need to call in an hour before the beginning of their work day and they're not doing that. It's not something that you can coach them to. It's a problem that only they can solve. So that's how you might approach that problem. What you're doing here when you're using these cushions, you're trying to approach the employee in a way that they'll be open to hearing what you have to say instead of just shutting down because they don't like your approach. Another cushion you can use is we have a problem and I need you to, we just did that one, moving forward, I need you to focus more on your accounting procedures and then follow that up with let me explain my thoughts and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. Or how can I help you improve your accounting practices? I've noticed accounting might be giving you some problems. Let me explain why. Or I think we need to talk about your accounts payable. This is where I'm seeing a problem. When you use disciplinary cushions, make sure that you have evidence with you to support what you're saying. You might want to pull a couple of examples of the poor quality of work or pull that letter that you received from the general contractor about something that happened with the equipment or pull that work order that wasn't followed correctly. If you have evidence, the employee is more likely to see what you're talking about and better understand why you believe change is needed. So sometimes it's much better, it's much better to talk to the employee using a cushion and then having that evidence there along with everything else that you need. Any questions about cushions? Okay. When you talk to that employee, you want to develop a plan of action. If the employee has everything they need to make the change, it's more likely the employee is going to be able to make that change. So just saying to the employee, I need you to be more accurate in your accounting work, isn't necessarily going to give them the information that they need because they don't know what you mean when you say that. So talk about as is, the way their work is happening right now. Talk about as is versus the way it should be. What should it be like in the future? So give them examples of this is what your work looks like now, this is what it should be when it's done correctly. Once they've seen enough examples about that, they should gain agreement that a problem exists. You're showing them how they're working and you're showing them what it needs to be. If it's not a process, let's say it's a policy, you're showing them or they're seeing how they're dressed today and you're showing them what the dress code says so that they can understand where the disconnect is and start working on fixing that. Then sit down with the employee and develop action steps the employee has to take to make it right. Let's say it's dress code and let's say they're not dressing appropriately for the job and they need to either be wearing safety gear or they need to not be wearing T-shirts with wording on it. Do you have a uniform? So they see what they're wearing and they see the uniform. Let them know what the target date is. If it's a short-term goal, it might be immediate, especially if it's something they're choosing to do that needs to be different. If it has to do with what they're doing in their job, set a target date for improvement and then set some follow-up dates with them. Don't make the mistake that so many managers make when they put a goal together or an improvement together and then they say, okay, that has to be done by the middle of March or the middle of July, but then they don't check in with the employee until July. If you do that, if that happens, then you're setting that employee up for a gotcha moment. You are not checking in with that employee to figure out if they're on progress, are they on track, are there obstacles that they need to be focusing on, do you need to help them more, is what you put in place not working, do you need to find another path? If you wait until that last day, don't expect that improvement to be made. That's setting the stage for failure, not setting the stage for success with your employee. And then the final thing that you need to do is discuss consequences in terms of effect on the department or on production and also on the employee. What happens if this doesn't happen? If you continue down this path, if you don't make this change, if you don't change your behaviors, if you don't learn this process or this skill, what happens? What happens within the department? How does it affect co-workers? How does it affect customers? And what's going to be the effect on the employee? If you are setting the stage for a termination later on, it's important that the employee understands the next steps, that consequence of their inaction, and that it's been communicated and that the employee understands that communication. Most of the time, unemployment, some of it is based on did the employee know the consequences of their inaction? And that's sometimes one of those questions that the unemployment office is going to ask when they're determining whether or not you're going to be the person paying their unemployment or you're a company paying their unemployment. Let's talk a little bit about decision-making leaves. A decision-making leave is a tool first introduced by a gentleman by the name of Dick Grody. And I want to take a minute and talk a little bit about Dick Grody because he was a pretty phenomenal consultant back in the 1970s. He's published a great book, it's called Discipline Without Punishment, and it's a fun read. It talks about a client he had, a little company by the name of Frito-Lay. And Frito-Lay had a problem with their employees and they found out they had a problem with their employees when they started getting calls from consumers all over the United States. It seems that people were opening up these bags of potato chips and they'd take out a potato chip to eat it and there were two words written on the potato chip before it was fried. And those words weren't let's dance, we're not going to talk about what those words were but you can use your imagination. Dick Grody went into Frito-Lay and found that the employees felt as though they were being treated like children. They had no control over their daily work, they had basically no say in anything, they felt like robots. Frito-Lay was not treating their employees like adults. So Dick Grody put into place processes and procedures throughout Frito-Lay. The one we're going to talk about a little bit this morning is Discipline Without Punishment. And what Dick did was looked at the way they were disciplining employees and decided to give some of the disciplinary decision making to the employee and leave it up to the employee. So one of the things he came up with is decision making leave and it's kind of like a suspension but not really. The employee gets some time off to decide whether or not they want to continue working for the company. So the employee is given maybe three days, maybe five days. It's not a punishment thing, the letter basically says, you know what Mr. or Mrs. Employee, we have rules here and it doesn't appear that you want to follow our rules and that's okay. You know, everybody gets to decide if they want to follow rules or not. But it looks like you don't like to follow our rules. And our rules are for everybody, we don't have separate rules for different people. So we want you to take some time off and decide if you want to follow our rules. And if you don't want to follow our rules, that's okay. You don't need to work here anymore. We'll accept your resignation, not a problem, no harm, no foul and you can go on your way. If you do decide you want to work here, when you come back from your leave, that's great. We'll be happy to welcome you back with the understanding that you're going to follow our rules surrounding this area and all of our other rules because if we have to talk to you again about any infractions, that means that we're going to have to enter the termination process. So it really does put the decision of whether or not to continue working for the company in the employee's hands. And this has been a very effective tool that I've used with many, many clients over the past 20 years. Very effective tool to use. Any questions about decision making leave? Okay, let's move on. Another really, really great tool to use are last chance agreements. Same basic premise, Dick Grody again used the last chance agreement with Frito-Lay. Again, it treats employees like adults. In a last chance agreement, you're spelling out what the acceptable, unacceptable behaviors are. I've used this very effectively for drug and alcohol abuse. I've used this very effectively for something that we would call a bad attitude, which is something we don't want to use because it doesn't mean it's very ambiguous. No one really knows what that means. But it does spell out those unacceptable behaviors and lets the employee know that they have one last chance to make the necessary changes. I want to spend a little bit of time on a drug and alcohol policy and using a last chance agreement for a drug and alcohol policy. Let's say you have two employees. One employee has been with you for 20 years, never been a problem, and you have another employee who's been with you for six months and has missed quite a bit of time in that six months. Let's say that employee that's been with you for 20 years recently lost his spouse. And because of that, he's started drinking. This is an employee who would be very, very, a last chance agreement would be a very good tool to use with this employee who's been with you for 20 years. Basically you're saying to the employee, you know what, you're a great employee, you've been loyal, we want you to stay here. We can't, though, have you come to work inebriated. Can't have you drinking anymore, it's not going to work, twice it's happened. We know you've gone through some difficulties, so we want to help you make a change. So for the next 12 months, we need you to agree to random alcohol screening. We're going to set you up with Alcoholics Anonymous or some counseling through your EAP if you're fortunate enough to have an EAP. We're going to set you up with the counseling and we're going to ask you to submit to random alcohol screenings through the EAP, through the counseling over the next 12 months. And if during that 12 month period you test clean, great, it's working, we're so happy that we're going to be able to continue to employ you. If during the next 12 months you don't test clean or we take you in through reasonable suspicion or an accident or whatever else we have in our drug policy and alcohol policy and you don't test clean, then we're going to have to terminate you. And the employee reads through this agreement and they either agree to the last chance agreement and say, yep, I agree that over the next 12 months I'm going to go in for alcohol screening and if I test positive, it's my job, I'm also going to agree to enter rehab or Alcoholics Anonymous or counseling and I'm going to agree to allow that counseling center to release my records about my progress to you. All of this I'm going to do in an effort to keep my job and they sign that. Or they can sign that they don't agree to it and that they quit. So last chance agreement and decision making leave are two very, very useful tools you can use to really spell out the consequences of bad behavior. So there are other types of disciplinary documents that I want to talk about for a while. There are improvement plans, personal improvement plans, PIPs, they've been around for a very long time. On a PIP or with a PIP, the problem is identified, so you're identifying the as is and what should be. There is an action plan identified of the steps the employee needs to take to make the changes and then there are check-in times as we've talked about before. This is a very good form that you can use to pull all your thoughts and ideas together. And again, as I said earlier, if anybody wants copies of any of the forms we're discussing, please feel free to reach out and they will be provided to you as part of today's webinar. There are different types of employee warnings. Personally on a warning form, I like to see a couple things. I like to see it's either a warning or it is a final warning. I don't like to see, as we talked before, verbal. So I like to see warning and I like to see final warning. If it's a warning, you want to spell out what the problem is, of course, what the employee needs to do to change, of course, and the consequences of not making the change. Maybe the consequence is another warning. Maybe the consequence is termination. Maybe the consequence is last chance agreement. Maybe it's decision-making leave. Maybe it's suspension. It could be a variety of things, but you want to spell out on that employee warning what the next step is. You want to make sure that you've done that. And I like language on a warning that says you need to behave appropriately in every facet of your job, whether related to this incident or not, because if we have to talk to you again, it either will or may result in termination from the company. So many times I see companies that have systems in place that say, you know, you're going to get a first warning and a second warning and a third warning and then you're out the door. I get that. What I see employees do, though, is have, they're on their last warning for attendance and then they're on their last warning for safety and they're on their last warning for dress code violation and last warning for cell phone use, and it's driving the supervisor crazy. Don't put yourself in that position. If you are tied to using a formalized three-step process and some union contracts require that you do that, don't make it per area of discipline. Make it broad. Say three warnings for any infraction instead of three warnings surrounding attendance or three warnings surrounding dress code violations. That way the employee is put on notice that you're not going to play games with them. If there is another infraction, it may lead to their termination. And I like that verbiage on disciplinary actions because I think it sounds a very clear message that you're very serious about this and you don't want your disciplinary process to turn into a game, who can one-up who, and sometimes that happens, especially in the workplace. When you document, try and tie the infraction or the process or efficiency to something that's established, whether it's an established work rule in the handbook or it's an established efficiency rate or a job order or a work procedure. Try and tie it right back to that item that the employee already understands because it's in writing somewhere. Really that's the best way to discipline and it's also going to help you avoid unemployment charges later on if the employee says, well, I didn't know that was a rule and you happen to have an acknowledgment form that says, yes, they got the handbook and they agree to read and follow things. Let's talk a little bit about when you don't want to document on a formal warning, how though, for instance, a verbal. When you don't want to make that documentation on a final warning, what are you going to do to still show that it happened? Because it is important that you document but maybe not on that formal warning form. So here are a few things you can do. When you have that verbal conversation with the employee, one of the things that you might want to do is say in a recap in an email, thanks, Sarah, for meeting with me this morning. I really appreciate the fact that you took time to sit down and talk and I know that you're going to work on your attendance issue. We talked about A, B, C, and D and I just have faith in you that it's going to get done and that your attendance is going to improve. Thanks again for, you know, being a good employee in all other areas or however you want to end that conversation. You're documenting that the conversation took place. Even if you're not putting it on a formal warning, you're still documenting that the conversation took place. Another good tool that you can use is a log where you write down when you've had conversations and I'd have a separate sheet of paper. I personally like to do this in Excel. Put together an Excel worksheet where the employee, you have a different worksheet for every employee and then you record information on that. Think how valuable that would be at the end of the year when you sit down to discuss performance. If you had a weekly recap of items that had occurred during the year, both positive and negative. But write it down in your log and then when you have to approach the employee with a written warning, you're going to say that we talked about it on this date and we talked about it on this date so they will know that you were keeping good notes. So you don't need to put everything on a warning form although you do need to document. So let's talk about, let's go back to the warning, the employee warning form or the improvement plan for a minute and talk about what if that employee doesn't want to sign. And that happens sometimes. Sometimes the employee does not want to sign off on that document, on that disciplinary action. Well there are a few things you can do there as well. You can ask the employee to write down on the piece of paper, employee refused to sign and ask them to sign that line. You would be amazed how many people will sign that they've refused to sign. Another thing that you can do is ask another manager or supervisor, not anyone below your level but someone your level or above. After you've had the conversation with the employee, ask that manager or supervisor to come in and just witness the fact that Sarah refuses to sign her warning. And then the supervisor says, Sarah are you refusing to sign this? And Sarah says, yes I am refusing to sign this. And the other supervisor might say, well then I'm going to witness that you're refusing to sign this. And then you can make Sarah a copy so she has it. Another thing you can do is send the disciplinary warning to Sarah in an email or send it overnight return receipt requested so that you have some type of proof or attempt to get that documentation into Sarah's hands. And of course that's after she's refused to sign and it's been witnessed that she's refused to sign. So there are many things that you can do with that, with those documents. Even if you don't have a signature or even if you're not doing a formal disciplinary document to still record the fact that that conversation took place and that the employee is aware of the changes that are needed. Questions about types of disciplinary documents? You guys are being real quiet today. Okay, so we talked a little bit about that warning. So here it is. So you will have this in your slides and you will be able to copy it. You must adhere to company policies, maintain fully acceptable performance and work behaviors in every area of your job whether related to this issue or not since any further problems that require disciplinary actions either may or will result in your immediate termination from the company. An additional language for non-union shops, since all employment is considered at will nothing in this notice is meant to convey employment is guaranteed for any specific amount of time. So if you add that wording to your documents, your disciplinary documents, you're covering all your bases and it really is important wording to have. So to wrap up, when you're thinking about disciplining your employees, it's really, really important to have policies and procedures in place to help employees understand expectations and also so that managers and supervisors know what the work rules are too. A handbook is probably the best guide you can give your managers and your supervisors so they understand the rules as well and then when they understand the rules, they know what to say to employees when employees aren't following the rules and they know where the parameters are. Address problems early so that you don't become frustrated. The more frustrated you become as a leader, the less effective you are going to be when you are disciplining your employees. When you address one big problem, the smaller problems might go away. I think about myself. My husband does not like to drive. He wants me to drive everywhere but he doesn't like the way I drive. So he gets in the car and all he does is complain about my driving while I'm driving which just makes me frustrated so I probably drive more poorly. And that's how people usually react. If they're being harped, if people are riding them, if people are pressing them, it's not conducive to getting better or making any real progress. So address those problems early so that you're not frustrated and when you're not frustrated, then the employee is going to be more at ease. Address the big problems and those small problems might go away, same reasoning. Try and use the right type of discipline for the problem. And it's usually probably a good idea in your companies to have one person who looks over any type of discipline before it's administered to the employee especially if you have a larger company or have several managers working in different departments. If you have one person looking over all of those disciplinary actions, just you make sure that one supervisor isn't handling something more harshly than another. That can help for EEO claims or for your state Department of Human Rights claims as well. You want to make sure that the punishment fits the crime and that it's pretty even throughout the company. So having that one person look over and make sure that it's the right type of discipline for the problem is probably the best thing you can do. And then always remember to document. There are so many different ways you can document, whether it's on a last chance agreement, whether it's on a performance improvement plan, whether it's on a decision-making leave or a warning. Is it a first warning, a second warning? What are the consequences? If the consequences are termination, a little side note here, make sure that A, if you say you're going to terminate, the next step is termination. The unemployment office, if they see several final warnings but never a termination, that employee will win unemployment simply because you didn't follow what you said you were going to do. And if you are going to terminate, make sure that you have other people in place, all your ducks are in a row, so that when that person, when the termination does take place, you are ready with another person to step in and do the work of the person going away. And remember not to document for verbals. If you must document for that first conversation, please don't call it a verbal warning. Call it something else. Call it initial meeting. Call it initial counseling session. Call it initial disciplinary session. But please don't call it a verbal. Because once you've committed to writing, it is no longer verbal. So I'd like to ask one more time if there are any questions. There is an area in the chat section for audience participants to write any questions down they may have. We did allow some time today for questions, so let's open it up to questions now. Yes, the presentation will be available, and I believe that you can receive a copy of the presentation. We will check with AED on that, but I know they will be keeping...it's been recorded, and all the slides will be available for download. So yes, we are going to be having slides available, and Norma, you're more than welcome. You've got my contact information there. Again, any of the forms that anybody wants, please reach out. I'll be more than happy to send you anything you need.

disciplining employees

training for proper behavior

teaching obedience to rules

mandated company policies

disciplinary cushions

disciplinary leaves

last chance agreements

documenting disciplinary actions