EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE & CONDUCT

[Published in Manila Bulletin last October 2011]

Just like in school, an Employee’s “behavior and conduct” is monitored, measured and graded. Whether formally or informally, most employers, bosses or managers need to master the art of Employee Discipline to ensure that business operations would run smoothly, the team performs well and workforce productivity is as its best.

Newly promoted supervisors and managers often find that this is one of the most difficult areas of people management. How do you make sure that your subordinates are all doing their jobs to the best of their abilities? How do you correct preventable mistakes and errors? And what do you do with unprofessional attitude and behavior?

Defining Your Leadership Style

Like a parent or teacher that deals with children, a manager often has to make a conscious choice in how to deal with employees. For instance, if you were a boss, what type of boss would you like to be? Are you going to be strict or lenient? Authoritative or approachable?

Most employees will immediately say that they would like a lenient and approachable boss. And newly promoted supervisors and managers, more often than not, want to be a likeable boss. This is fine in the beginning until sooner or later you realize that you have to make unpopular but sound decisions. You have to rectify errors and correct bad behavior. Then you have to adjust your style and define boundaries.

Setting Boundaries

Employee discipline is quite similar to parenting and teaching. As a parent or teacher, you want your child to learn and grow up to be a responsible person. Along the way, you have to teach your child what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s acceptable and what’s not, so that the child can adapt well to society.

In the same way, effective employers have clearly defined company policies that they expect employees to follow. This is immediately discussed upon hiring of an employee so that the new employee can adjust well to the workplace.

If an employee knows what is expected of him or her, then it is much easier to meet those expectations as opposed to having no idea at all of what the company wants.

Rewards and Punishment

Once a new employee is inducted, the employer starts to monitor the attitude, behavior and performance of the individual. Like parents and teachers, good performance is often rewarded with recognition, incentives, awards and bonuses. Needless to say, people like this and these types of positive reinforcement results in high morale and better productivity.

However, more often than not, employees make mistakes or have bad days. If a small error is made, a simple talk to correct the person is often enough. However, if the mistake becomes a habit or if the deed is grave, then disciplinary action is often done.

Disciplinary Action

Now being disciplined is not something normal people enjoy. I mean, who wants to be corrected, right? No one wants to go through the humiliation of being at the receiving end of that dreaded verbal or written warning. Not a lot of people want to be suspended particularly because workplace suspensions usually mean no pay. Worst of all, it just sucks to be fired.

That is why Disciplinary Actions are often viewed and received in a negative light. Meanwhile, HR professionals, the people who process these things, have the difficult job of being the messenger of such news. This is one of the least favorite tasks of HR professionals. It is a difficult job, but someone has to do it.

Consistent Disciplinary Process

Although this is not a popular area of people management, it is necessary for companies to have standard and consistent disciplinary policies and processes. Like most grown up children, employees will eventually realize that there’s security in rules and regulations since it sets clear boundaries on how all people in the workplace should act… that these guidelines actually give peace and order. It helps to know what to expect.

Just like parents who have clear rules and consistent discipline strategies, employers who have formal disciplinary processes will eventually be able to provide an environment where workers can easily adjust to. In the same way, parents and employers who do not have clear guidelines for rewards and punishments, will only confuse people more.

Positive Employee Discipline

But the real challenge for Employers, HR professional, Managers and Supervisors is this: How do you discipline an employee in a positive way?

The answer lies in the right mix of policies, communication, performance measurements, disciplinary processes, rewards and punishment practices. In our Human Resource Management Seminars on Employee Discipline and Conduct, we explore both the legal and practical aspects of Employee Discipline as well as best practices in this field.

There are concrete steps that can be taken to ensure that employees are corrected in a positive and effective way wherein their dignity remains intact. This results to a well-motivated and self-monitoring workforce that’s exciting to manage.

I believe each employer, boss, manager or supervisor must master the art of Employee Discipline. It is not a task that’s meant to control an employee, rather it is a pursuit in developing and letting people grow. After all, the job of the leader is not to make followers but to build future leaders.

Useful Tools to Communicate & Udpate Employees

Aside from traditional bulletin boards, there are simple tools that you can use to communicate and update your team of employees. Let me share with you a couple of tools that we use in our company...

COMMUNICATIONS LOGBOOK & ONLINE MESSAGE BOARDS
This is especially helpful when you've got employees with different schedule shifts... Or when we need to share information within the team, but don't want to necessarily announce it to the whole world.

Back in college, not so long ago, we had a tambayan (hangout place). Since my friends and I had different class schedules and we didn't see each other daily, we would communicate and update each other using a message logbook. (There were no cellphones yet at that time and not everyone had beepers).

In the same way, we've been using a message logbook in our office for the past 5 years. In the logbook, we write notes, reminders, greetings and such. It's has been a pretty good communications tool.

But we've recently added another improvement in our company. Since everyone in our company now have computers and internet access, we have an Online Message Board for the team. We use the forum to update each other about projects and programs. Unlike email wherein it gets difficult to sort through all the messages that come in, the forum provides a focused discussion thread for us.

It's pretty cool and very easy to do. For more information on simple HR projects that you can do, you may attend Businessmaker Academy's HR Management Seminar Series and become a member of HR Club Philippines. For assistance in setting up your Online Message Board and train your people on how to use it, you may work with an IT specialist or visit BusinessmakerOnline.

>>> Jhoanna O. Gan-So is the president and head of research and development for Businessmaker Academy. She is an educator, entrepreneur, marketing communication specialist and HR practitioner. Together with her husband, Mark So, she is committed to helping people improve their personal, professional and financial lives.

Our HR Digital Newsletter

Let me first introduce you to HR Club Philippines, the online forum membership site created by Businessmaker Academy to help HR practitioners and students continue learning and developing skills in Human Resource Management.

This Online Newsletter is a by-product of our Seminar Series on Human Resource Management. Aside from our regular forum, we've decided to digitally deliver helpful news, insights and project ideas to help you make positive improvements in your workplace. Basically, we're here to help you help others at work.

So feel free to subscribe, post comments and questions and share this to your friends.

Here's to a happy and productive workplace to all of us!

>>> Jhoanna O. Gan-So is the president and head of research and development for Businessmaker Academy. She is an educator, entrepreneur, marketing communication specialist and HR practitioner. Together with her husband, Mark So, she is committed to helping people improve their personal, professional and financial lives.