Progressive Discipline & Labor Law
Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company's Loss Control Services reminds employers that progressive discipline is an employee privilege, not a right, and that employment is "at-will" in nearly all U.S. states. Employers should clarify to their employees whether progressive discipline is used unconditionally in the workplace for every infraction or if there are circumstances when it will be overstepped. Furthermore, a company's progressive discipline standards should never conflict with labor laws.
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Definition
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Indiana University defines progressive discipline as "the process of using increasingly severe steps or measures when an employee fails to correct a problem after being given a reasonable opportunity to do so." The Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company expands upon this definition by stating the steps are meant to improve employees' performance but may also lead to termination.
Function
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According to Indiana University, "The underlying principle of sound progressive discipline is to use the least severe action that you believe is necessary to correct the undesirable situation." Designating an appropriate consequence gives employees a sense of fairness in the workplace. This fairness comes across as a clearly enforced reprimand resulting from an employee's undesirable behavior. Used effectively, progressive discipline should act as a check-and-balance system to make sure that employers are acting within recognized labor laws and that employees are not taking advantage of their employers.
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Features
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The International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) lists the six steps of progressive discipline in increasing severity: verbal warning, written warning, documented meeting, poor performance evaluation, unpaid suspension and termination. Indiana University suggests that employers "increase the severity of the action only if the condition is not corrected." Ideally, an employer that increases the severity of its disciplinary actions will encourage the employee to reconsider continuing the undesirable behavior.
Benefits
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Progressive discipline is beneficial for the employer and the employee. It helps employees understand that they are directly responsible for ensuring their own employment because they are in control of their own behavior. According to the Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company, progressive discipline aims to help employees see that they can improve or that there are issues with their performance. The IPMA-HR list communicates standards as the first advantage of using progressive discipline in an organization. IPMA-HR also lists rule reinforcement, appropriate punishments, morale and productivity increases, documentation implementation and problem prevention as additional benefits.
Shortcomings
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Like any governing system, progressive discipline must be consistently enforced to be effective. It will not be as successful if it is partially applied or inconsistently enforced because employees could view it as optional instead of a regulatory employment system. IPMA-HR notes that employers may not like the fact the progressive discipline requires that an employee go through all of the process's steps before being terminated, which may keep chronically ineffective employees around longer than necessary.
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References
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