Effective Tips for Conducting Disciplinary Meetings in the Workplace (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Eric Bass, an attorney from Venn Law Group. For 20 years, I have worked with small to mid-sized businesses on their employment issues. I often see business owners struggle with disciplinary meetings or warnings to employees. Many people don't like disciplining others and find it difficult. However, providing accurate feedback on performance is a vital part of being a good manager. Also, providing warnings and documentation will help prevent legal issues later. So when having a disciplinary meeting, I suggest the following tips to help you make this a productive act. First, prepare well for the meeting. Do not conduct a meeting while you may be emotional. If you have to send the employee away for a short time or yourself, please do so. Holding a disciplinary meeting while everyone is emotional tends to lead only to more problems later. Take some time to reflect on the conduct and make sure you can precisely state what the issue is and why it is a problem. Be sure to leave out acts that are not important. Prepare to provide suggestions for corrections or better behavior to help guide the employee and provide some positive advice. Write the warning down before the meeting. Even if you give a verbal warning, document the specifics in writing at some point. Second, consider your surroundings. Select a convenient meeting time that avoids disturbances in the workplace, whether it's at the end of the day or otherwise. Have the meeting away from others for the privacy of the employee and you. You can never be entirely sure how an employee will react, so it's best to conduct it away from others. That said, you do want one witness. Ideally, your Human Resources staff should witness the meeting to help avoid confusion as to what all parties say and record important statements. Third, document, document, document. Whether it is a verbal warning or a written warning, be sure to keep documentation of the meeting and results in a secure file. Write the documentation for the file as soon as possible after the meeting while memories are fresh. This documentation can be essential to avoid discrimination or other claims later. Lastly, I want to stress that even if it is difficult for you to conduct disciplinary meetings, please follow through and do it. It is important. Don't neglect it because it is stressful. Your employees should be some of your best assets, but they can create liabilities if you don't manage them well. You need to be sure to properly correct inappropriate behavior. To learn more best practices for employers, contact Venn Law Group today to see how we can help.