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.
There is no question that employees will eventually stretch the rules if you let them. This translates into the simple fact that if all the other employees in a department see that one employee can violate the rules and you don't take action, they will soon follow. Therefore, doing nothing when this happens will have a dramatic impact on productivity.
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.
Making sure that you are treating everyone the same is crucial to the success of any disciplinary program. Law suits after law suits are filed against those employers that take action against one employee but not against someone else for violating the same rule. It will do them no good to try and convince others that one employee is performing better than another, because at the end of the day we need to treat everyone equally. Selectively enforcing the rules will cost you.
It is important to only state the facts when putting together the actual written warning letter. Using words like "I feel" are emotional and should not be used. The actual written warning should have within it the following; the specific violation, all the details surrounding it, whether the employee has received prior disciplinary action, what is necessary for them to improve, and finally what will be the results of them violating another company policy.
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.
There is no question that employees will eventually stretch the rules if you let them. This translates into the simple fact that if all the other employees in a department see that one employee can violate the rules and you don't take action, they will soon follow. Therefore, doing nothing when this happens will have a dramatic impact on productivity.
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.
Making sure that you are treating everyone the same is crucial to the success of any disciplinary program. Law suits after law suits are filed against those employers that take action against one employee but not against someone else for violating the same rule. It will do them no good to try and convince others that one employee is performing better than another, because at the end of the day we need to treat everyone equally. Selectively enforcing the rules will cost you.
It is important to only state the facts when putting together the actual written warning letter. Using words like "I feel" are emotional and should not be used. The actual written warning should have within it the following; the specific violation, all the details surrounding it, whether the employee has received prior disciplinary action, what is necessary for them to improve, and finally what will be the results of them violating another company policy.
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.
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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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