Learn Effective Employee Discipline

One of the least liked responsibilities of entrepreneurs and managers is implementing employee discipline. It is a task filled with difficulties like emotional outbursts, legal complications, and even violence, in rare cases. The work force now is more knowledgeable and many won’t just abide with a decision if they think it is not right. To address this, management must be more informed and well trained to handle the situation.

While there will always be problems in implementing employee discipline, you can learn how to minimize these. The first thing to do is to master your company’s rules. It would be a blunder to refer to the company manual only when there is a problem. As always, prevention is better than trying to fix a crisis.

Initiating Effective Employee Discipline

First of all, you should hire employees who are both capable of the position and with the right attitude. There must be an accurate job description so that there would be no confusion as to responsibilities. Continuous training and accurately written procedure manuals will help prevent violations from occurring. You must also guide and remind employees regarding the rules so that they are less likely to violate them.

It would be best for you to know the reasons behind the rules and to explain this to your employees or subordinates. People will be more inclined to follow the rules if they see that it serves a good purpose. Your review of the rules may also reveal that some rules no longer apply or are in need of amendment.

Management must also know the basics of labor law so that they will be able to proceed without labor violations. The most common errors here are the proper procedures of giving due process, especially in the case of termination of employment. While it would be best not to get involved in a lawsuit, you must always be prepared in case someone sues.

After having clearly established the expectations, it is up to the management to see that rules are followed. The basic idea to remember here is that there must be consistency in the application of the rules. It would demoralize the work force if a certain person is punished while another gets away without a warning. Besides this damaging effect, being biased leaves the company open to discrimination law suits.

In the making of the rules, the penalty should be commensurate to the gravity of the offence. It would antagonize the employees if even a minor offence results in immediate firing, especially if the person concerned has many children to support. Nevertheless, there should also be provision for graver penalties in case of repeated offences.

Finally, it should be noted that in most companies that have disciplinary problems, the root cause is lack of motivation. Finding out how to better motivate your personnel would certainly improve discipline.

To learn more about managing employee discipline, BusinessCoach, Inc., a leading business seminar provider, conducts an excellent seminar on Effective Employee Discipline. Call (02) 727-5628, (02) 727-8860, (0915) 205-0133 or visit www.businesscoachphil.com for details.

Click here to view details of the seminar: Effective Employee Discipline »

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.