HR MANAGEMENT - How Important Is Discipline to the Workplace?

How Important Is Discipline to the Workplace?

by Mary Strain, Demand Media

This is what you may feel like doing, but it's important to show restraint when administering workplace discipline.

Every boss has been there: the moment when you realize a problem employee is going to need disciplinary action. The temptation is to either flake out because a desire for peace, or to overreact out of frustration and anger. Human resources experts advise that workplace discipline is best administered in a private, one-on-one conference that focuses on behavior, not personalities. And it's important not to ignore the issue: workplace discipline, when properly administered, helps your business avoid many common problems and benefits you in many ways.

Curbs Problem Behavior

The first and most important result of workplace discipline is that it curbs problem behavior. The importance of this result is in direct proportion to the severity of the offense. An employee who's making waves with office gossip may be more of an irritant than a threat, but an employee who's causing serious workplace disruptions, such as threatening other employees or bringing weapons to the office, must be dealt with immediately. Ignoring an employee who is exhibiting erratic or dangerous behavior can result in tragedy; ignoring one who is sowing discord will lower employee morale and may reduce productivity over time.

Upholds Workplace Standards

Workplace discipline, when consistently and fairly applied, reinforces the rules you've established for workplace conduct and promotes employee morale. When workplace rules are clear, when they apply to everyone and when they are consistently enforced, employees know where they stand and how they are expected to behave. They are more likely to respect workplace rules when they know those rules will be enforced, thus reducing the likelihood that disciplinary action will be needed in the future.

Helps Avoid Lawsuits

Workplace discipline, when used to uphold your company's discrimination or harassment policies, may save your company from a lawsuit if an employee decides to take legal action. For example, say that one of your female employees claims that a male supervisor has harassed her at your workplace. If you fail to investigate her claim — or if you do investigate, find her complaint valid and fail to discipline the guilty party — she may elect to sue your company. When discrimination or harassment claims are just, swift disciplinary action can help reduce the likelihood of costly lawsuits.

Averts Bigger Problems Later

When workplace discipline is postponed, either out of a belief that it's a one-time mistake, or a fear of creating resentment, the employee often doesn't realize that he's done something wrong. Swift correction, calmly administered, helps the employee correct his course while the problem behavior is relatively easy to fix. If the employee is allowed to continue behaving inappropriately, he'll be bewildered and possibly resentful when he's finally corrected, since he will correctly point out that he did the same thing many times before without any response from management. Other employees will also see the employee behaving inappropriately without rebuke, and perhaps be emboldened to do the same themselves. Swift correction of problem behavior prevents these adverse events.