There will be times when employees fail to comply with your rules or to meet expectations and however reluctant you may feel about this, the situation should be addressed. Failure to do this is effectively condoning the behaviour to the employees involved, to other employees and even sometimes to external stakeholders, which can lead to considerable dissatisfaction all round.
Minor and initial instances can often be addressed successfully informally but more serious misconduct and particularly gross misconduct may merit use of a formal process from the outset. Sometimes an organisation will have a Disciplinary policy in place but often help is required to put this into practice. Even without an in-house policy, we can guide you through a process that will meet statutory requirements and comply with the non-statutory ACAS Code of Practice for Disciplinaries and Grievances (failure to follow this can result in an uplift of 10-25% on any compensatory award subsequently made in tribunal in respect of the matter).
There are key steps required under the Code and one of these is the requirement for an investigation to take place before any disciplinary action is taken. We can advise on the best way to approach this, given the inevitable nature of internal relationships, and can undertake the investigation on behalf of the employer if desired.
The ways in which we add value in such circumstances are:
- Policy development and implementation
- Advice and support to interpret policies and to determine a fair and reasonable course of action
- Impartial investigation and investigation report
- Template documentation and advice on process
- Preparation for conducting a disciplinary hearing
- Attendance and advice at the disciplinary hearing
- Note taking in investigation interviews and disciplinary hearings
- Advice on determining the outcome of the disciplinary hearing and documenting this to the employee
- Managing the appeal process, including preparation for, and attendance, advice and note taking at, the hearing.
Please contact us in confidence for more information and to discuss this further.