1. DISCIPLINE w/o PUNISHMENT!!
DISCIPLINE DOESN’T
HAVE TO HURT !!
Presented by
Glenn Powell, Executive Director
Human Resources
Lone Star College System
2. POSITIVE DISCIPLINE
BUILDING
SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE
THROUGH
COACHING AND
FORMAL
DISCIPLINARY
ACTION
3. Consequences of Punishment
Action Undesired Employee Behavior
Response Punishment
Short Term Decrease in Undesired Behavior
Long Term
Anger Apathy Absence
4. Building Superior Performance
Supervisors are Most Valuable Supervisor
the single most
important factor
in the performance
of their employees
5. “Good” Neighbors
You have a neighbor with a dog. You’ve got a problem.
Instead of keeping the dog tied up on inside the fence, he
lets the dog run free.
Kids are afraid to play outside, your flower garden is dug
up, the mail carrier won’t deliver your mail because he’s
afraid of the dog, and you are getting just a little tired of
tracking doggy souvenirs onto the carpet in your house.
What do you do?
6. Two Goals:
1. Get the dog tied up
2. Stay on good terms with
your neighbor
7. BEFORE THE MEETING
1. What is the desired
performance?
2. What is the actual
performance?
3. Good business
reasons for solving
the problems.
4. Consequences if
problem continues.
5. What is the
appropriate action
to take.
8. DURING THE MEETING
1. Listen to what the
employee has to
say.
2. Gain the
employee’s
agreement to
change.
3. Insist on an
employee driven
action plan (for
performance
issues).
4. Let employee know
where he stands.
9. AFTER THE MEETING
1. Document the
discussion, not
the discipline
form.
2.Follow Up to
make sure the
problem has
been solved.
10. Traditional Progressive Discipline
INFORMAL TRANSACTIONS
Coaching and Counseling
FORMAL DISCIPLINARY TRANSACTIONS
Step 1 Verbal Reprimand
Step 2 Written Warning
Step 3 Suspension w/o Pay /
Probation / Final Warning
Step 4 Termination
11. Why Traditional Discipline
Doesn’t Work
Because it …
Is outdated, adversarial method.
Makes the supervisor the bad guy.
Is not a corrective process.
Simply demands too little from the employee.
13. DISCIPLINE W/O PUNISHMENT APPROACH
INFORMAL DISCUSSIONS
CoachingContact
Positive Session
FORMAL DISCIPLINARY DISCUSSIONS
Level 1 Oral Reminder
Level 2 Written Reminder
Level 3 Decision Making Leave /
Final Discussion
TERMINATION
14. Purpose of Discipline
Discipline is not something we DO to bad
performers for misbehavior.
Rather, it’s something we CREATE and
MAINTAIN for all employees because
they deserve to work in a safe,
professional and productive
environment.
16. Between a Hard Rock and Stoney place
• In July 2002, National Oilwell Varco hired Stoney Ruffnec as a field
service tech. Twelve months later, he was promoted to a lead tech
position. In all of his formal evaluations, he was assessed as a
“superior” employee -- “ten out of ten stars”.
• In July 2003, Stoney hurt his back at work, and was out for 3
months. He was released by his physician on restricted duty for an
“indefinite period”. His supervisor, Shorty Overburden reluctantly
followed the instructions from the worker compensation carrier
and designed a job for Stoney on dayshift rather than afternoons--
his regular shift -- to better monitor his compliance with the
doctor’s orders.
17. Hard Rock (cont’d)
• In July, 2004, after nine months on
restricted duty and numerous
complaints from co-workers about
his not doing the job, Ruffnec was
demoted back to technician, but Mr.
Overburden chose not to reduce his
pay. Eight weeks later, he was fired.
18. Hard Rock (cont’d)
Ruffnec sued the company, claiming he was
wrongfully demoted and fired, and had suffered
illegally discrimination due to his religion and his
disability.
The company claimed it bumped him back to the tech
position because of poor performance; he was let
go because of three incidents in the month before
his discharge. Those incidents were …
(1) failing to follow safety rules,
(2) not maintaining his service logs, and
(3) missing 5 days of work in the final two
weeks due to some type of
“religious observance”.
19. Situation No. 2
Scenario #1
• Mary is a receptionist who has been with you for five
years. She has had one counseling session for
arriving to work late, but that was over one year ago
and the problem disappeared after the counseling
session. You have heard rumors that Mary is going
through a divorce. You happen to come back from
lunch at the same time as Mary and share the
elevator with her. You smell alcohol on her breath
and cigarette smoke on her clothes. You are
immediately concerned.
20. Scenario #1 (con’d)
You come to the conclusion, just by your own observations, that Mary
spent her lunch hour drinking in a bar. You then watch Mary walk
off the elevator and back to her workstation, where she stumbles
into her desk and knocks a $5000 (Mac) computer to the ground.
How do you handle the situation?
21. Issues Raised in Scenario #1
• Should you send Mary home for destruction of property?
• Should you send Mary home because you smelled alcohol?
• Should you call a taxi or security?
• To whom do you turn for assistance?
• How do you handle the discipline issue?
• What is the affect of the prior
counseling session?
• What is the employee
assistance program?
23. What Outside Agencies and Juries Will Consider
• Clear
communications of
performance
expectations
• Documentation
• Performance
appraisals /
Feedback
• Complete
investigation
• Was the company’s
policy followed
• Consistency
24. Questions to Ask Before Implementing Formal
Discipline
• Did the employee clearly understand the rule or policy
that was violated?
• Did the employee know in advance such conduct would
be subject to disciplinary action?
• Was the rule that was violated reasonably related to the
safe, efficient, and orderly operation of the
organization?
• Is there substantial evidence that the employee did
actually violate the rule?
• Is the disciplinary action reasonably related to:
a. Seriousness of the offence
b. Employee’s record with the organization
c. Action taken with others committing similar of offences
25. Top 4 Things Plaintiff’s Lawyers Hate
You responded, and made an immediate, appropriate, and
adequate investigation.
You fixed the problem, and the negative conduct stopped.
You took corrective action and disciplined the bad actor, as
appropriate.
You tried to make it right (changed offices, reporting
relationships, shifts, etc).
25
27. DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM
Use facts and specifics, not
generalities or judgments
Compare actual to desire
performance
Describe the good business
or organizational reasons
(the impact) why the
problem must be resolved
28. DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM
• Use facts and specifics, not generalities or judgments
• Compare actual to desire performance
• Describe the good business or organizational reasons (the
impact) why the problem must be resolved
29. DESCRIBE THE DISCUSSION
Indicate the date, time and Record the specific Reflect the employee’s
location of the comments and statements agreement to change.
conversation. made by the employee.
30. Ruffnec Critical Incident Report
Date Type of Incident Documentation Details of Incident
01/25/12 Verbal altercation with co-workers Email to employee Discussed the confrontation with S.
Jones. Ruffnec indicated that it
wasn't his fault and that he was just
trying to solicit information from
Jones so he could finish his service
logs. Ruffnec was instructed to use
the chain of command when it
becomes apparent that another
employee is not cooperating. Told
Ruffnec that yelling at another
employee is unacceptable behavior.
05/05/12 Meeting with Supervisor, HRM, Email to employee
Employee
06/29/12 Failure to complete task Supervisor notes
08/09/12 Late report Email to Employee
31. Email Madness
1.Use extreme caution with your e-mail
practices.
2.Remember with e-mails you can have more
than one person holding onto those records.
3.Be careful before you hit that “send” button
to be sure that you are sending e-mail
messages to the intended person(s).
4.Some e-mail communications may be
considered ‘official documentation’ of what
is communicated.
5.Employee health information is private and
protected by law.
Notas del editor
It's an outdated, adversarial method.The traditional progressive-discipline system was concocted by unions. As a result, the approach reflects the adversarial, labor-vs.-management assumptions that prevailed in those hostile times. No other personnel system reflects the antagonistic tassumption that employees and managers are adversaries. It makes the supervisor the bad guy. Most supervisors hate having to take disciplinary action. With its criminal-justice mentality, the system makes the supervisor feel like he's in the wrong. Managers often wait to confront people problems until a nuisance has become a crisis. They face an almost impossible conflict: On the one hand, we ask them to be leaders, teachers, coaches. On the other, we require them to be the dispenser of punishments. No wonder they dawdle and tarry when discipline problems arise. The traditional system is not a corrective process. **Organizations often discover that their supervisors don't see their discipline procedure as a corrective device. To them, it's the procedure they must follow to generate enough paperwork to justify discharge once they've decided that an employee's termination is in order: They view the steps of the discipline system merely as the hoops put up by Personnel for them to jump through in order to effect a problem employee's firing. As a result, they don't even begin the discipline process until they have given up hope of ever correcting the problem. The traditional approach simply asks too little. The progressive-discipline approach is certainly unpleasant. It breeds resentment and hostility. But the system is flawed by more than just its exclusive reliance on punishment: It is insufficiently demanding. Punishment-warnings, reprimands, suspensions without pay -- seems like a tough way of assuring compliance with organizational standards. If someone fails to meet expectations, we punish that individual until he complies. But compliance is all that the traditional system can produce. We can punish people into compliance; we cannot punish them into commitment.
Promotion implies she was doing a good job.“Superior” job evaluationWhy was she brought back when she couldn’t do her regular job.
Why specifically was he demoted back to receptionist position, and why didn’t they reduce his pay. Why was he fired.
What issues or liabilities do you think the company has in its determination of Topsoil.
Go the the Introduction section: list of mandatory policiesLegally required.On the web: References
Use extreme caution with your e-mail practices. Be careful what you put into writing. Words in an e-mail can be easily misinterpreted.Check for any applicable state and/or federal laws for retention requirements for e-mails. You will want to develop a retention policy while keeping in mind that you will apply it in a consistent manner.Remember with e-mails you can have more than one person holding onto those records. For example, when two (or possibly more) people engage in extended e-mail ‘conversations,’ as messages going back and forth, you can have one party who deletes all his or her records. However, no one can control how long other individuals retain those same messages.Be careful before you hit that “send” button to be sure that you are sending e-mail messages to the intended person(s). Some e-mail communications may be considered ‘official documentation’ of what is communicated. If employers are asked by the courts, which can happen, to furnish all e-mails about employee ‘John Doe,’ you may be required to share those e-mails with the court. As an alternative, I recommend that people simply pick up the phone to talk to someone, especially about sensitive or delicate matters that can easily be misinterpreted in an e-mail.Employee health information is private and protected by law. You should not pass around such information by e-mail. Again, you want to avoid getting into employees’ personal and private matters, which can be easily misconstrued or mishandled via e-mailed messages.
Go the Introduction section: list of mandatory policiesLegally required.On the web: References