Case Study: Performance and Disciplinary Issue

We give extensive guidance and support to our clients when they have performance and disciplinary issues with their staff and we will occasionally work directly with them during more complex disciplinary processes. 

Our client was concerned that their employee’s performance was becoming increasingly unreliable, their attendance had deteriorated and their behaviour in the workplace was reaching a level where they thought that they needed to address it formally.  

The employee had several years’ service with the business and our client knew that managing the full range of issues was going to be complex, tricky and time consuming. We talked through all the issues with the manager and discussed possible approaches and solutions although it was clear by that stage that the employee’s conduct had reached a level that formal action had to be taken against them. The business had limited experience of handling more complex matters and they asked us to help them. We worked with them and gave them the ‘tools in their toolkit’ to effectively and robustly manage the unsatisfactory attendance, poor performance and addressed the concerns around behaviour and placed clear expectations on the individuals along with clear next steps in the event that improvements weren’t achieved. 

Ultimately the individual failed to improve sufficiently and we worked with our client through to termination of employment.  

Whilst our client had a comprehensive set of policies and procedures, we identified opportunities for improvement and offered a series of recommendations which gave the managers greater flexibility and direction.