Employee discipline can be a challenging experience that managers and supervisors sometimes face. Supervisors should generally pursue a progressive approach to discipline, depending on the severity of the issue.

Your Human Resources representative should be notified when you are seeking to take disciplinary action against an employee.

Behavioural issues generally result in disruption to the work environment; for example, workplace misconduct and/or rule violations. Performance issues result in failure to meet goals and/or satisfactorily perform tasks because the employee lacks the knowledge, skills or ability to perform the job or the work is consistently unacceptable in terms of quality or productivity.

• When you become aware of a problem, promptly speak to the employee. Set expectations, specify the deficiencies you wish to see corrected, and how corrective action is to be undertaken. Listen actively, allow the employee to share their perspective. Share any support available and document the conversation for future reference. Usually, at this early stage, the employee is given advice and guidance.

• Have as many additional discussions with the employee as appropriate under the circumstances. Recap the initial and/or past conversation(s) and the expectations set. Implement an action plan with clear timelines and consequences to help the employee improve and schedule regular check-ins to monitor progress.

• It is important to maintain a log of all conversations of this nature with the employee, including date of discussion, expectations set and resources provided. If the employee seems uncertain of the advice and /or guidance being given, then provide a summary of the conversation via email.

• If, after a reasonable period of time, there is no improvement, or insufficient improvement, contact the Office of Human Resources, who will partner with you to formally notify the employee of the conduct or performance that needs to improve.

Generally, discipline should not come as a surprise to the employee. Occasionally, employees are unaware of their supervisors' dissatisfaction until they suddenly receive a formal written reprimand or a letter of suspension. Try to avoid this situation, if possible, and attempt to regularly communicate issues to employees rather than wait until the problems can no longer be tolerated..

In most cases, the purpose of discipline is to instruct and correct rather than to punish. It is your responsibility as a manager/supervisor to explain to the employee those areas in which they are expected to improve, to make suggestions about how to improve, and to allow time for the employee to make improvements.

The appropriate number of discussions, warnings, the repetition or exclusion of one or more steps, and the length of time between the steps taken will depend on many factors such as the nature and seriousness of the issue; any improvement made by the employee; the level, nature and responsibilities of the position and the previous disciplinary record of the employee.