adminUnfortunately for the majority of employers these objectives are lost and disciplinary action is driven by anger and emotions resulting in later reversal of decisions or loss of cases.
When a robbery occurred at a factory and money was stolen from the wages department while wages were being packed, the employer suspected the wages supervisor had a hand despite being cleared by police.
He was dismissed for negligence and was reinstated at conciliation level when the employer had sobered to the fact that there was no negligence but an unfortunate robbery.
Such abuse of disciplinary procedures is common in organisations and in many cases it turns out costly from both a financial perspective and human relations cost impacting negatively on productivity.
When emotional, managers need to allow for a cooling off time so as to act rationally. It must be noted that not all cases of misconduct merit formal disciplinary action.
In some instances the misconduct could be trivial to an extent that it is of a minor nuisance value thus not requiring any action at all.
In most instances the disciplinary action option is driven by a mix of employee personality, supervisor personality, obtaining workplace environment, obtaining external environment, business prudence, labour relations appropriateness, legality, and political expediency.
There is a need to take all these into consideration before deciding on taking disciplinary action and deciding on the route to follow.
Not all disciplinary action requires the use of the code of conduct.
In many instances firm discussions and verbal warnings do the trick on most reasonable employees and eliminates attitudinal and behaviour changes related to formal disciplinary processes and written warnings that become permanent record in employees files.
In addition employers need to carefully calculate the total cost of intended disciplinary action. First there are negative ripple effects of disciplinary action on other employees.
There is possible loss of human capital as the employee is dismissed and other employees leave fearing that one day they might also be dismissed especially in an organisation with a culture of dismissals.
There is also the cost of damaged organisation image as the case goes through the legal process and further there are costs related to reinstatement costs or damages.
In today’s work environment these costs can sink a business.
Before applying the disciplinary code of conduct the employer has to also evaluate the risks involved, these include cost related to disciplinary process errors, failure to have competent managers to constitute the disciplinary process resulting in so many mistakes.
Further once an employer starts disciplinary action there is a chance that hidden hands can get involved and the whole process spirals out of control calling for expert support to stabilise the process at a huge cost.
The spine of any disciplinary action is ensuring that there is merit in the case being raised and that the charges are consistent with allegations.
The problem with many employers is that they adulterate the process by exaggerating issues so as to dismiss an employee.
Unfortunately when the matter is taken before a reasonable appeals authority holes will be drilled into the case and the employee gets reinstated at a price to the employer.
Employers need to always accept that once they initiate disciplinary action in terms of a code of conduct the case might end up outside where huge financial resources might be required to handle the case.
Not only will financial resources be required but also expert knowledge and experience in labour law might be required. In short the employer must ensure he has the capacity to handle external litigation processes.
In conclusion it can be said the employer has to be clear on objectives, calculate related risks, evaluate long term impact on productivity and labour relations and have in his employ managerial employees capacitated to handle the disciplinary process legally in the interest of the business and employees.
Always remember every dismissal is removing one of the pillars carrying the organisation thus only damaged pillars have to be removed or replaced.
Online Reporter