Tips to discipline with dignity
A couple of quick tips to discipline with dignity:
- Discipline consistently. If you discipline an employee for a specific offense, make sure you discipline all employees for making that offense.
- Determine if the issue is behavior or performance. If the issue is performance-related, consider using a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan).
- Don’t wait to discipline an employee. If you wait:
- the employee thinks their bad behavior is okay
- the other employees wonder why this employee is “getting away with” their bad behavior
- it promotes disrespect in the workplace
- you run the risk of becoming frustrated/angry and over-reacting to future incidents (see Number 1 above)
- Stay on top of your employees. Once you’ve written up an employee, don’t let the behavior slide by; address any additional incidents immediately.
- If you have old written warnings in the personnel file, destroy them after about a year. You typically can’t support a “second” warning if the first one is too far away in time.