How to Create and Enforce a Progressive Discipline Policy

Having strict performance standards can be a good thing, but terminating an employee the first time they fail to meet performance expectations is a recipe for low morale and high turnover at your organization. On the other hand, you can’t afford to be too lax or permissive and let unacceptable behavior slide.

A progressive discipline policy allows you to address work performance and employee relations issues without ending the employment relationship. By taking a step-by-step approach, you can improve employee retention and avoid legal issues.

Here’s how to build progressive discipline into your company policies and use open communication to address poor performance.

What Is a Progressive Discipline Policy?

A progressive discipline policy is a process in which you take gradual disciplinary action to address an employee’s behavior issue or job performance. It gives an employee time to correct their behavior before you take more drastic measures.

A progressive discipline process may look something like this:

• Verbal warning: The first level of discipline is a verbal warning delivered by the employee’s manager or an HR professional.
• Written warning: The next step is a written notice of the performance issue, which may include a performance improvement plan (PIP) or corrective action plan.
• Final warning: If the employee’s conduct or performance doesn’t improve after a set period of time, the final step is to give them one last written reprimand. Some disciplinary policies may also include suspension or demotion.

A progressive disciplinary process can be effective for minor infractions and employee performance problems like tardiness, absenteeism, or insubordination. They give the employee an opportunity to correct their behavior before termination.

Of course, some types of unacceptable behavior, such as sexual harassment, could result in immediate termination of employment. Similarly, workplace safety violations that result in injury may need to be reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Why a Consistent Discipline Policy Matters

A progressive disciplinary policy takes time to enforce but has several clear benefits for your organization. For one, it takes some of the decision-making power out of the hands of individual managers so you can provide a fair and transparent process for everyone who works for you. Here are a few other ways it can have an impact.

Improved Morale

A consistent disciplinary process is good for employee morale because it ensures that unacceptable behavior is addressed and maintains a healthy work environment. It also reassures employees that they won’t be fired without good reason or for a minor issue, contributing to their sense of security and well-being at your organization.

Increased Retention

It’s usually more cost-effective to retain an employee than it is to replace them. With a progressive disciplinary process, you can increase retention throughout the employee lifecycle by giving team members the support they need to address performance issues or improve their workplace behavior.

Reduced Legal Liability

Without a formal disciplinary process, your organization could be held liable for wrongful termination or discrimination. By documenting each stage of the progressive disciplinary process, you can demonstrate that you made a good faith effort to address the situation and that you haven’t fired the employee prematurely.

How to Enact a Progressive Discipline Policy

The progressive discipline process looks different for every organization. You can create a new policy from scratch or base it on your existing company policies. Let’s take a look at how to create a new policy, inform your employees about it, and enforce it.

1. Establish Your Policy

First, formalize your company policies by developing a code of conduct and including it in the employee handbook. Use the employee onboarding process to explain the policy to new employees and inform existing employees about any changes.

Make sure managers know about your new policy and how to enforce it. Remember, it’s only effective if everyone at your organization follows it consistently. Along with outlining the steps in the process, let employees know how to report a policy violation and under what circumstances you’ll conduct an internal investigation.

2. Document Disciplinary Action

One of the most important elements of a progressive discipline policy is documentation. Keeping a record of every step in the process ensures that it’s applied consistently and backs you up in the case of a disagreement. Ideally, have employees sign each written warning to confirm they’ve received it.

When you use a digital employee relations platform like Pulpstream, you can generate disciplinary forms automatically and save them to the employee’s personnel file. Use them to monitor an employee’s progress and track repeated violations.

3. Follow Up With the Employee

The purpose of a progressive disciplinary policy is to encourage improvement through open communication. If you don’t follow up with the employee, they won’t know if the process has been successful and may fall back into old habits.

Consider offering employee counseling or training to address employee performance or behavior issues. If your disciplinary process includes a performance improvement plan, set a date to follow up with the employee and check in on their progress.

4. Investigate as Necessary

Some disciplinary issues may require investigation, especially if one employee accuses another of unacceptable behavior. When conducting a workplace investigation, always follow consistent procedures to avoid unfair treatment or bias.

Let employees know if they have an opportunity to appeal any disciplinary action taken against them before being demoted or fired.

Digitize Your Progressive Discipline Policy

Enforcing your progressive discipline policy can take some effort, especially if you have multiple cases happening at once. Using an employee relations platform to enact your disciplinary policy allows you to standardize and personalize it.

Pulpstream’s cloud-based HR automation platform offers these key features. 

Step-by-Step Workflows

Pulpstream’s drag-and-drop workflow builder allows you to create customized workflow automations for your employees to follow. Managers can enforce your discipline policy step by step, while employees can get automatic notifications by email or SMS when there’s an update on their case.

Automated Recordkeeping

With Pulpstream’s cloud-based document management tools, there’s no need to save printed copies of written reprimands or chase down employees for their signature. All they have to do is log in to a self-service portal to see their disciplinary history — and sign documents online to acknowledge they’ve received them.

Customizable Templates

Your disciplinary process should be standardized, but there’s room for personalization. Since each incident is different, provide customizable templates for key documents like disciplinary action forms and performance improvement plans. Managers can adhere to your disciplinary policy while making adjustments based on the specifics of the case.

Enforce Your Progressive Discipline Policy With Pulpstream

Taking disciplinary action when necessary helps to maintain a healthy workplace, but a lax or inconsistent disciplinary policy can harm employee morale and retention. Having a progressive disciplinary policy gives managers a step-by-step process to address an employee’s performance or behavior — and gives them a chance to correct the issue before facing more serious repercussions like termination.

Pulpstream’s comprehensive HR platform helps you enact your disciplinary policy with automated recordkeeping, step-by-step workflows, and customizable templates. Use it to conduct a workplace investigation, create a performance improvement plan, or take other actions to address an employee’s performance.

Pulpstream even allows employees to submit anonymous complaints, alerting your HR team to unacceptable behavior without compromising employee privacy.

Request a demo to see all of Pulpstream’s user-friendly features!