• Determine if the misconduct is severe enough to warrant discipline, i.e., can the discipline be justified?

If faced with a situation where there is apparent employee misconduct, the first step should be to determine whether any discipline is appropriate or whether the misconduct is severe enough to warrant being addressed formally. If you’ve faced a similar situation in the past, how you responded then should weigh into your consideration.

If discipline is appropriate, the next step is to determine if there are sufficient facts to justify the discipline. The key factors to consider include the following:

1. Do the facts establish the employee did — or failed to do — the things claimed?
2. Did the employee’s behavior violate an established rule, regulation, or requirement?
3. Did the employee know — or should have known —the rule, regulation, or requirement?
4. Has the rule been enforced consistently prior to this incident?

When performance is the issue, it’s important for employers to consider why an employee’s performance may not be where the company expects it to be. Some questions to consider include:

• Does the person actually have the skills or capabilities to meet the company expectations?
• Has the person been formally trained in the problem area?
• Has the person had an adequate practice/orientation period?
• Has the employee recently taken on new responsibilities?
• Have other employees with similar skills been able to meet expectations?
• Is the performance deficiency within the person’s control (i.e., adequate equipment provided)?
• Has management clearly communicated expectations?
• Are there personal problems affecting the employee’s performance?

Answering these questions may help you determine underlying causes of the employee’s performance problems and help you in developing an effective corrective action plan.