How to Handle Poor Employee Conduct in the Workplace in England

As an employer, you may have employees who behave poorly when carrying out their roles in your workplace. It is critical to immediately deal with poor employee conduct through either informal or formal procedures. You must also deal with the issue fairly. An employment tribunal will consider how you deal with poor conduct in the workplace and how your actions could affect the amount of award you are required to pay. This article will explain how to handle poor employee conduct in the workplace. 

What is Poor Conduct?

Poor conduct is when your employees do not meet your expected standards in terms of their behaviour at work. Instead, they display unacceptable or improper behaviour, which is termed misconduct. 

Examples of misconduct could be:

• an unauthorised absence, where your employee misses work without permission;
• behaving badly outside the workplace, such as in front of clients;
• bullying;
• harassment; and 
• insubordination, when your employee will not carry out their work for you.

In addition, gross misconduct is where your employees’ behaviour is exceptionally bad. Examples of this are:

• fraud;
• violence; and 
• gross negligence.

What is a Disciplinary Procedure?

You may need to take disciplinary action when your employees show poor conduct. A disciplinary procedure will detail how your business formally deals with poor behaviour. These rules can describe what you consider as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and may cover other subjects such as:

• health and safety;
• how your employees can and cannot use the internet and phones; and
• rules on timekeeping and absence.

Your disciplinary procedure must also state examples of what would be gross misconduct. 

It is best practice for your disciplinary procedures and rules to follow the Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. Notably, it is not a legal requirement to follow the Code, though an employment tribunal will consider whether or not your business observed the code. If your employee can prove you did not, they might receive an award that is 25% higher. The Acas code applies to employees, but it is good practice to follow it with your workers too, as this will help ensure good working relationships.

Steps to Take for Poor Conduct

If your employee appears to be showing poor conduct, this is how you can deal with it.

Establish Whether it is Potential Poor Conduct

You should first investigate the circumstances to decide what steps to take. Therefore, you can ensure that your employee’s behaviour is potentially poor conduct rather than other issues such as capability issues regarding them carrying out their job role. 

Attempt Informal Action

If your investigation reveals that your employee is showing poor conduct, you should first try to resolve the situation informally. For example, you can:

• have a private chat with them and be sure to listen to their viewpoint;
• include anyone else involved in the discussion; and
• agree on a plan to improve the employee’s behaviour. 

Begin Formal Action

If informal action is not successful, you should begin formal action, which is your disciplinary procedure. This procedure must be full and fair. Also, to ensure consistency, check whether any similar incidents have occurred in your workplace to see how you dealt with them.

Let Your Employee Know What is Going On

As soon as you begin formal action, you must let your employee know by:

• informing them in writing with adequate time to prepare for a meeting;
• giving your employee enough information to ensure they know what you consider poor conduct; and 
• stating the potential consequences if they are found to have carried out the alleged action.

Carry Out a Full Investigation 

The investigation should happen as soon as possible by someone not involved in the employee’s potential poor conduct to help ensure that you are following a fair procedure. If your business is small, this could be you. When carrying out an investigation, you should:

• create an investigation plan;
• gather as much information as possible;
• be fair and get evidence from all parties; and 
• keep the information confidential.

Conduct a Disciplinary Meeting

After your investigation, a disciplinary meeting or hearing should occur as soon as possible. Inform your employee in writing, noting their right to be accompanied to this meeting. The meeting allows you to hear both sides of the case, ask questions, and go through the evidence. You should also make a confidential record of this meeting.

Make a Final Decision

After the disciplinary meeting, you should allow yourself time to reflect before deciding what action to take and provide your employee with a timeframe. Your disciplinary procedure and rules should state the possible outcome you may take. You might decide no outcome as no misconduct was found. 

The outcome could include:

• an informal warning;
• a formal written warning;
• demotion; or 
• dismissal.

Key Takeaways

If you face potential poor conduct in the workplace, you must follow full and fair procedures when investigating. Firstly, you will need to establish that the situation is potential misconduct. If it is, you should initially try to resolve it informally, such as through a meeting with those involved. However, where this is impossible or does not resolve the issue, you may need to take a formal disciplinary procedure. This requires you to write to your employee explaining what is going on, investigate the issue and hold a disciplinary hearing. As you come to the end of handling poor employee conduct through the formal disciplinary procedure, you will need to decide on an outcome such as demotion or dismissal. 

If you need help handling poor employee conduct in the workplace in England and Wales, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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