Fixing a Broken Employee

Maintaining order and maximizing performance are critical elements in the management of an employee population. Just as a parent disciplines a child, a supervisor must call into question unacceptable behavior demonstrated by his or her direct reports. Parents attempt to curb the bad behavior of their child before it becomes ingrained. They use several techniques from talking to the child, scolding them, sending them to their room, or even grounding them when the behavior is bad enough. It’s not likely that your employees have a room at the office to send them to when they are misbehaving, but you will notice that the parent in the example above is using something called progressive discipline. Progressive discipline is one part of an overall corrective action program, whereby each subsequent infraction is dealt with a little more severely. It may begin with a verbal warning, lead to a suspension, and end with termination.

How many people think the goal of corrective action is to create a paper trail to follow so that when an employee is ultimately fired, you can defend your actions? If you answered “yes”, you couldn’t be more wrong. That may, at times, be the end result. But the reason we engage in corrective action is to bring about a change in behavior; to correct a deficiency; to improve performance. We must always focus our efforts on changing undesired behaviors. If we have any other ulterior motive, corrective action programs will not work. In fact, when employees realize that they only get disciplined as a first step to being terminated, there is no incentive to correct the behavior. 

The most important step in preventing unwanted behavior is communication. Communicating rules and policies is usually done during an employee’s first week on the job. An effective orientation program will dedicate a portion of the time to review the employee handbook and cover basic policies and expectations of behavior. Special training programs are also used to communicate expectations. For example, sexual harassment training clearly tells employees and supervisors what is acceptable behavior and what is not as it relates to dealing with others in the workplace.

Probably most important in communicating expectations of behavior and how inappropriate behavior will be dealt with is a written policy. Formalizing your policy by putting it in writing is an essential first step to communicating and developing a program that has teeth. The policy should become a part of the employee handbook that is distributed to all new employees upon hire, as well as reviewed with all employees from time to time. It should also allow flexibility in its application, as there are times that management needs to exercise discretion.

How you treat your employees when they make mistakes will define the company and its culture. A practice of helping employees overcome their problems by giving them every opportunity to improve will in most cases reward the company many times over.

By John P. Savas
Photo Credit: Bethany Legg | unsplash.com/@bkotynski