Lawful and Effective Discipline  

• Why Train on This Topic?
• Who Should Take This Course?
• Course Content
  • Purpose of Corrective Action
  • Documenting Employee Performance and Discipline
  • Meeting With the Employee to Discuss Your Concerns
  • Performing Follow-Up Meetings
  • Factors to Consider When Deciding Whether to Terminate an Employee
  • Termination Meeting
  • Post-Termination Issues
• Instructional Design
• Customization
• Supporting Resources
• Print a Flyer
  
  

Employees who perform poorly or commit misconduct cost organizations billions of dollars each year. But many supervisors are reluctant to confront poorly performing employees. First, many supervisors want to avoid conflict. Second, supervisors may not feel confident in their ability to provide constructive criticism or effective discipline. And third, supervisors may fear making a mistake in the discipline process for which their organization could later be sued. Indeed, each year improperly handled discipline and termination decisions cost employers millions of dollars in litigation costs, verdicts, and settlements.

Employers must train each supervisor on how to lawfully and effectively discipline employees. Effective training provides supervisors the practical skills they need to confidently:

• Document poor performance or misconduct
• Counsel or discipline employees at the first sign of problems, rather than waiting until problems have escalated
• Document disciplinary actions properly
• Terminate employees lawfully
• Avoid discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation, due process, and other employee lawsuits

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• Supervisors
• Managers
• Human resource professionals

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The course will address issues such as:

1. Purpose of Corrective Action
   • Goals of providing employees feedback, counseling and discipline
   • Why supervisors are reluctant to honestly evaluate and promptly discipline employees when needed, and the legal and organizational dangers of not doing this
     


2. Documenting Employee Performance and Discipline
   • Identifying and keeping a diary of specific incidents and behaviors
   • Properly documenting counseling and disciplinary meetings with employees
   • Keeping documentation focused and professional
     


3. Meeting With the Employee to Discuss Your Concerns
   • Restricting comments to specific incidents of poor performance or poor behavior
   • Asking for an employee's suggestions on how to prevent problems from recurring
   • Handling your emotions and properly responding to the employee's emotions
   • Choosing the appropriate level of discipline
   • Making sure that an employee has the resources and training necessary to do the job
   • Ensuring that the employee understands your expectations and performance requirements, the specific actions he or she will need to take to improve, and the consequences of not improving
     


4. Performing Follow-Up Meetings
   • Reviewing each incident of poor performance or misconduct and informing the employee of problems remaining or of the employee's successful improvement
   • Discussing further violations of organization policy
     


5. Factors to Consider When Deciding Whether to Terminate an Employee
   • Ensuring that discipline is applied consistently
   • Avoiding terminations that could be seen as discriminatory
     


6. Termination Meeting
   • What should you say and not say?
   • Should you tell the employee the reasons for the termination? How much detail should you give?
   • Documenting terminations properly
     


7. Post-Termination Issues
   • Protecting other employees and your organization's property
   • Handling requests for references

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The best way to learn is by doing. Through a series of scenarios and interactive exercises, you will learn practical skills for lawfully and effectively counseling and disciplining employees.

For example, in the simulation section, you will gain hands-on experience in applying the theories of lawful and effective discipline to the nuances of a difficult conversation with a poorly performing employee. Depending on the questions you ask and the comments you make, the employee will give you different responses. Your goal is to have a constructive conversation with the employee that squarely addresses your concerns with the employee's performance. At the same time, you must avoid saying anything that later might be used against you in a lawsuit.

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The course can easily be customized to include an audio-visual message from an official in your organization and instruction on your organization's specific policies relating to discipline issues.

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After completing the course, users may return to the course at any time to review the material learned.

In addition, users are able to view and print out a Checklist on Lawful and Effective Discipline, which provides a step-by-step outline of the principles taught in the course.

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To view or print a flyer describing the content, features, and benefits of Brightline Compliance's online course, Lawful and Effective Discipline, click on the image below.(PDF)

To view sample user survey results for this online course, click here.

To Learn More
To view a demo or learn more about this course, contact Brightline Compliance at (800) 331-7965 or contact us.

 

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