Sometimes it may be necessary to issue a staff member with a written warning, however ensuring you follow the correct process is paramount as otherwise your business could be open to potential legal claims of unfair dismissal from an employee if the warning is later used as justification for termination of employment. For advice on...
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Sometimes it may be necessary to issue a staff member with a written warning, however ensuring you follow the correct process is paramount as otherwise your business could be open to potential legal claims of unfair dismissal from an employee if the warning is later used as justification for termination of employment.
For advice on how to issue a written warning at work and any other disciplinary process procedure, contact Employer Advice on 0800 470 3529.
A written warning is a formal warning to an employee that their conduct needs to improve, or that they have committed an act of misconduct or poor performance in breach of company policy. As the name suggests, this type of warning is documented in writing and kept on the employee’s record for a period of time, 12 months or less typically in the case of final warnings or 3 – 6 months in the case of first written warning offences.
A written warning should only be issued after a thorough investigation and disciplinary hearing in line with your company’s disciplinary policy. Once the hearing has been concluded and the evidence evaluated enough to conclude that misconduct did occur then you need to issue the staff member with a letter stating the outcome of the hearing.
If you then issue a written warning this should be related to the offence and contain as much relevant information relating to the incident as possible. Some points you should include are:
When writing the warning it is key to use specifics, such as the details of the issue, the dates and times, people involved, the reason why the incident is a violation of company policy and why you have decided to issue a warning.
You should also include any necessary steps that the employee needs to take e.g. improve behaviour. You should also outline what the consequences of the employee committing further acts of misconduct are. This is usually stating that they will be subject to further disciplinary action in line with your organisation’s disciplinary procedure. You should also include the employee’s right to appeal and the procedure involved in this.
When issuing a warning you should endeavor to get the employee to sign to say it has been received . You can also track the written warning letter if sending by post or, if delivering electronically via email, ensure read receipts are switched on.
This ensures two things, one, that the employee receives the warning and two, that the employee understands the content of the warning. You should also always be sure to properly document warnings.
It depends on the severity of the employee’s misconduct. Something so serious it is considered gross misconduct, for example, committing physical violence upon another member of staff, then it can be grounds for summary dismissal. However, even in this case, employers should launch a thorough and fair investigation and follow the disciplinary process, as failure to do so could lead to a costly legal claim.
Typically, in most cases, warnings are issues as such:
In some cases of more serious offences, it might be necessary to bypass certain stages. However, again, this should only be done once a thorough investigation and fair procedure has been followed.
Contact Employer Advice’s HR advisory team today and get ACAS code based recommendations to ensure a legally compliant disciplinary process.
Call us today on 0800 470 3529.