Are You Progressive?

HR Jungle

“I once worked at a company who followed a pattern of disciplinary actions. Now that I have my own business, I’m trying to decide if I really want to do it the same way. Are there options?”

Your HR Survival Tip

There are disciplinary options legally available and they typically fall into two categories: progressive or discretionary.

Progressive Discipline

You have a progressive policy when it specifies what happens for each occurrence. For example:

First offense = Verbal warning Second offense = Written warning #1 Third offense = Written warning #2 Fourth offense = Written warning #3 Fifth offense = Final warning Sixth offense = Termination

The problem with this type of policy is that you may be legally required to follow each step, regardless of the offense. On the other hand, it does give employees sufficient warning that the behavior may lead to termination and can’t be considered discriminatory since the same six actions are used on everyone.

Discretionary Discipline

When you have a discretionary policy, you handle discipline in the way it suggests at the Company’s discretion. We prefer this method because there are some things an employee might do that call for immediate termination and we  [click to read more …]