Disciplinary Action Forms

Disciplinary action forms can be very useful for your company when documenting disruptive employee actions when trying to keep a smooth and productive working environment.

Disciplinary Action

If one of your employee’s is acting in ways that detract from either their own work or that of others, you will often have to implement disciplinary action. Employers normally should begin implementing disciplinary actions if the employee is doing things that are causing the work environment to be less efficient and harmonious.

Using a disciplinary action allows you to alert the employee of their actions. Usually it will include meetings between the employee and their supervisor, sometimes conducting multiple meetings.

As an employer, you need to treat disciplinary action in a confidential manner. It may be possible that other employees find out about an employee’s disciplinary action, but you still have to keep it private. Do not let others know that the employee has been disciplined.

Employee Disciplinary Action Form

Oftentimes disciplinary action will involve a form or letter that lets the employee know why they are being disciplined. The form will usually state what the employer’s policies are and what the employee did. Having the notice in written form is important in order to document the proceedings.

If you use a standard form you can keep the discipline regulated and documented for use in the future. The form should be simple and consistent, permitting you to document proceedings. The form should be used because when unfavorable actions are taken against an employee since it is good to have proper records in case of future disputes or termination.

A proper discipline form report should include information about the action that led to the discipline, what the follow-up meeting was, and the kind of things communicated to the employee so that they would remedy their actions in the future.

For recordkeeping purposes, you should use a discipline form every time you initiate a disciplinary action. It is useful for both recordkeeping purposes and for future disagreements or actions.

Examples of situations where you might initiate employee discipline: an employee argues with others or with their boss, an employee uses obscene language, and/or skips work without notifying the appropriate supervisor(s).

Preparing the Disciplinary Action Form

You should already have your form ready before the supervisor and disciplined employee meet. Your Human Resources Department can help you with preparing and filling out disciplinary reports, as they are familiar with employee relations. Supervisors often are not as experienced in human resource matters like this due to its infrequency, which is why a Human Resources representative normally is responsible for monitoring such actions.

The Human Resources Department is there to make sure employees are properly and equally treated. They also make sure that paperwork is documented properly in compliance with company policy and labor laws. Normally, Human Resources representatives will also attend disciplinary meetings to act as a witness and assist when the supervisor needs help. Usually, supervisors who are unfamiliar with discipline will need assistance.

Written disciplinary warnings will formally keep track of the discipline. You can find examples online. Normally, the form will have a line saying “employee” where you can write down the name of the person getting disciplinary action. There will also usually be sections for the date of the disciplinary action, the employee’s supervisor, and the department the employee is in.

How to Write Disciplinary Action Form

In your discipline form, you should have a section that categorizes the kind of violation that took place. The violations can be events such as negligence, disobeying, lateness, quality of work, or others. This allows you to easily categorize and organize disciplinary actions.

You should also consider establishing a section that describes when the employee’s action took place, where it took place, and other logistical details as are relevant.

The form should also include a section where you have various testimonies regarding what happened. Also, this should include a section where the supervisor can state their case and the employee can also state their perspective of the events in question case.

You should also have a section describing what disciplinary action was done in response.

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