Disciplinary Procedures
(Refer to pages 23-25 of company Handbook)
Disciplinary Flow Chart - Click Here
Consider the following first:
Where the issue being addressed is the employee's poor performance, you may decide that training and coaching are the most appropriate courses of action (ie. Performance Management). An informal approach may be the most effective way of carrying this out, rather than invoking a formal disciplinary process so please consider wisely and feel free to contact the Peopleteam for further advice – preeya@grind.co.uk
Targets and regular reviews should be built into the informal process, so that we can monitor the employee's progress and agree further actions with them as necessary. If the employee's performance does not improve with the additional training and other resources offered, we should identify a point where using the informal process is no longer appropriate and should invoke the formal process at that stage.
You must consider the following before taking formal disciplinary action against an employee at GRIND:
1. The seriousness of the issue/incident (see flow chart) - Minor, Moderate or Severe
2. Is an informal approach a more appropriate course of action?
3. If performance related - would Performance Management (PM) be a useful alternative to disciplinary action
Disciplinaries Matrix:
MINOR LEVEL
Who is Present?
● The GM (Role of Facilitator & the Notetaker)
● The Employee
A minor form of misconduct should never lead to anything beyond a written warning. In many cases, an alternative course of action (Performance Management) is more appropriate. Please consider Performance Management (PM) before disciplinary action. If you do not feel PM will resolve the issue or if you have already carried out a Performance Improvement Plan and not seen significant improvement, then you may proceed to taking disciplinary action.
For example, an employee is 15 minutes late to work. You let the employee know that they were late (place a note on the employee’s shift in Selima) yet it happens again the following week. An informal chat is held with the employee to see if everything outside of work is okay. The employee does not mention any issues outside of work. You begin to notice a trend and after the third account of lateness whereby the employee is issued a verbal warning (you may wish to note this on file) and carry out a Performance Improvement Plan. During this period, the employee is late to a shift. You decide a more formal process is required and take disciplinary action.
Procedures
Stage 1.
Email employee the 'Invitation to Disciplinary Meeting' letter found in the ER folder (fill out 'red' sections, change all to 'black' colour and save to send as PDF). You will need to provide the employee with a minimum of 48 hours’ notice to allow them time to respond. Remember, the employee has a right to bring along a support person.
Stage 2.
Prepare supporting evidence - Record of all instances of lateness provided for the meeting ahead of schedule - Upload file onto Selima.
Stage 3.
Conduct Meeting (in a quiet area). Be sure to provide all supporting evidence and allow the employee an opportunity to provide an explanation. Take notes.
At the end of this meeting (if reasons of lateness are not justified), inform the employee that they will receive an outcome letter via email within 24 hours. You can mention in this meeting the outcome (verbally) but you MUST be sure it is the right course of action ie. written warning. Remind the employee that if the same incident is to occur within the 6 month record period - that further disciplinary action will be taken (and may include dismissal).
*If you are hesitant, do not feel pressured to give an outcome right then and there- take time afterwards to review or speak to the peopleteam*
Stage 4.
Follow up - be prompt in issuing the 'Notice to Disciplinary Outcome' Letter (fill out 'red' sections, change all to 'black' colour and save to send as PDF). This will need to be uploaded onto Selima.
If the issue continues, please get in touch with the Peopleteam for further advice
MINOR LEVEL DISCIPLINARY CHECKLIST:
o All necessary previous notes recorded in Selima ie. lateness recorded on the rota or log any informal chats on Selima – Search employee on Selima > go to Employment > Meetings > Add Meeting
o Informal meeting conducted to determine necessary actions before invoking disciplinary action
o Performance Management strongly considered or already carried out
o Invitation to Disciplinary Meeting Template found in the ER Folder - Generate and send invitation letter via email to the employee
o Prepare any relevant notes for Disciplinary Meeting > Any information relevant to the case that should be brought up.
o Notice of Disciplinary Outcome Template - Generate and send outcome letter via email to the employee
o Upload Outcome letter onto the employee’s Selima profile
MODERATE LEVEL
Who is Present?
● The GM (Role of Facilitator in the Disciplinary Meeting),
● A Senior Manager (Role of the Investigator)
● The Employee
● A separate Notetaker for disciplinary meeting (Optional – if no one, the GM should log all notes)
Moderate disciplinary action will follow the same disciplinary procedures as the minor process. The only variation may be in stage 2 – Investigation Meeting. As a result of this additional step, the disciplinary process may take longer to carry out. Please see an example and list of procedures below:
An employee did not show up for their shift and did not provide a valid explanation. They have been with Grind for 1 year and have no previous performance-related issues. The manager records absence on Selima (note on employee’s shift in rota). Following this, the employee fails again to show up for work two more times within the month. Both accounts are noted on file and the employee is provided with verbal warnings each time. A Performance Management Improvement Plan is carried out however, the employee fails to complete the plan as they are a no show once more during this monitored period. Disciplinary action becomes the best course of action.
Procedures
Stage 1.
Email employee the 'Invitation to Disciplinary/Investigation Meeting' letter found in the ER folder (fill out 'red' sections, change all to 'black' colour and save to send as PDF). You will need to provide the employee with a minimum of 48 hours notice to allow them time to respond. Remember, the employee has a right to bring along a support person.
Stage 2.
Due to the increased severity (repeated offence) of the case, an investigation may need to be held to attain the facts. The investigation will need to be conducted by someone other than the facilitator of the disciplinary meeting ie. another senior manager. The invitation to an investigation meeting must be sent to the employee with adequate notice.
The Investigation Plan
When preparing for the investigation, there are several considerations to be made:
1. What needs to be investigated?
2. Who is leading the investigation?
3. Is there anyone who needs to be spoken with? ie. Witness
4. Any sources of evidence such as emails, texts or CCTV
5. Are any of these sources time sensitive? ie. CCTV footage deletes after 30 days
The Investigation
When carrying out the investigation – remember, you must maintain a neutral point of view. Your job is simply to establish the facts. Your job is not to determine an outcome. Any questions asked, must be in a manner that is fair to the employee and does not lead them to feel they must respond in a certain way. The best way is to ask open ended or direct questions:
- What happened on XXX day?
- Can you explain why you did XXX?
- Are you aware of our company policies?
- Is there anything you would like to add to this investigation?
- Has anything been missed?
***Employee must sign their initials on all notes taken during this meeting - you may need to print the notes off for the employee to sign if not handwritten at the end of the meeting. This is vital to confirm that the statements/comments made have not been misinterpreted. A copy of the notes must be sent to the employee as well as uploaded on Selima.
Take time afterwards to review the investigation notes before determining the outcome based on the facts attained.
Stage 3.
Email employee the 'Invitation to Disciplinary Meeting' letter found in the ER folder (fill out 'red' sections, change all to 'black' colour and save to send as PDF). You will need to provide the employee with a minimum of 48 hours notice to allow them time to respond. Remember, the employee has a right to bring along a support person. If you choose to have a separate notetaker present, you will need to outline who this will be in the letter sent to the employee.
Stage 4.
Conduct Meeting (in a quiet area). Be sure to provide all evidence and allow the employee an opportunity to provide an explanation. In this example - an underlying valid reason was provided by the employee during the investigation meeting which they failed to bring up previously. This has been taken into consideration.
At the end of this meeting, inform the employee that they will receive an outcome letter via email within 24 hours. You can mention in this meeting the outcome (verbally) but you MUST be sure it is the right course of action ie. written warning. Remind the employee that if the same incident is to occur within the 6 or 12 month record period - that further disciplinary action will be taken (and may include dismissal).
*If you are hesitant, do not feel pressured to give an outcome right then and there- take time afterwards to review or speak to the Peopleteam*
Stage 4. Follow up - be prompt in issuing the 'Notice to Disciplinary Outcome' Letter (fill out 'red' sections, change all to 'black' colour and save to send as PDF). This needs to also be uploaded onto Selima.
MODERATE LEVEL DISCIPLINARY CHECKLIST:
o Generate and send employee the invitation to Disciplinary/ Investigation Meeting letter via email
o Arrange another senior member of staff to conduct the Investigation – Speak to Peopleteam for further advice if unsure
o Organise a set of investigation questions - refer to Investigation Questions template
o Send invitation to Investigation Meeting Template - Generate and send invitation letter to employee via email
o Attain notes from investigation - a copy must be emailed to the employee
o Notes prepared for Disciplinary Meeting
o Notice of Disciplinary Outcome Template - Generate and email to the employee
o Upload necessary documents onto Selima
SEVERE
All disciplinaries that fall within this category must be handled by the People Team. Please see advice by contacting preeya@grind.co.uk as soon as possible. The process may follow similar steps to a moderate level disciplinary process however it is imperative that the People Team are informed to guide you through this.