Discipline – The Essentials


If there are issues with the behaviour or conduct of one of your employees, it is vital for you to tackle the problems as early as possible. Sit down with your employee and discuss your concerns informally. Often a face to face, non-pressurised conversation will be enough to change the person’s behaviour and get them working properly again.

Should you be unable to resolve the matter in this way you may need to follow a set disciplinary process. The steps you need to take are detailed in our Your Responsibilities guide.

You may wish to use disciplinary procedures in situations such as:

Misconduct Cases – if an employee does not follow basic company rules, procedures or policies this may be considered misconduct. An example of this might be persistently arriving late to work, or a failure to follow reasonable requests.

Gross Misconduct Cases – serious acts of misconduct fall into the category of a breach of contract.  In this type of situation, an employee can potentially be dismissed without notice (known as a summary dismissal.)

Any employer that is concerned about a member of staff’s abilities and performance needs to read our Poor Performance section. If there is a problem with absenteeism our Unauthorised Absence and Absence Due to Illness – Short Term guides will be helpful.

For more advice about dealing with disciplinary matters, contact the Hylton Potts advice team on 0207 381 8111 or via email.