How to keep your employees in line and stay on the right side of the law

How to keep your employees in line and stay on the right side of the law

So you find your employee taking a nap on the job. You lose your temper and fire the lazy loafer. A week later, you’re called to the CCMA for unfairly dismissing your employee. This could spell disaster for your new business.

The days of hiring and firing people willy-nillingly are long over. There are specific processes that you need to follow when disciplining and dismissing your employees. Most of the time, disciplining your staff isn’t a pleasant process, but if you do it properly, you can have an employee understand your disappointment, take your criticism on board and even improve on the job.

Here are five tips to help you get the best out of your disciplinary procedures

Disciplinary tip one – Establish the rules upfront

As soon as you employ new people, make sure that you give them all the rules of the business the day they start working. New employees must understand your policies and procedures and all the repercussions of not following the rules. If you have a formal policy in place, you can instil your company’s values and philosophies.

Disciplinary tip two – Don’t get emotional

When one of your employees breaks the rules, you can’t fly off the handle. You need to think about what happened carefully and treat the employee fairly. This is difficult, especially in small businesses where you don’t have the luxury of a human resource department to handle employee misconduct. You need to show that you are passionate and committed to the business and that you’re a supportive boss.

Disciplinary tip three – Assess how bad the offense is

Before you sit down and address the issue with the offender, assess how bad the offense is. A minor offense could be addressed with a verbal warning or a simple counselling session. This is a great opportunity for you to whip the employee back into shape.

A major offense, like losing the company thousands of rand, deserves a final written warning. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, follow up the final written warning with a training session. Once you’ve retrained the offender, ask them to sign a document confirming that the training’s been given. This will protect you in the end.

Disciplinary tip four – Address the issue immediately

Don’t waste any time in calling your employee in. Leaving the situation to fester, could result in further problems such as a repeat of the offense or make you seem afraid to address the issue. Make sure that you address the issue immediately. From a legal point of view, you need to address issues as quickly as possible or it might not go in your favour.

Disciplinary tip five – Get someone to sit in on the session

When it comes to addressing issues with a poor performer, it’s always a good idea to have an independent witness to sit in on your meeting. This is a great way to show that you’re interested in resolving the issue and not burning the employee at the stake. This will help you to remain calm and conduct yourself in a professional manner. It will also help you in future, if the employee complains that you were unfair, you’ll have a witness to support you.

There you have it, now you know exactly what you need to do to make sure that you stay on the right side of a disciplinary with an employee.