Today’s Veterinary Business provides information and resources designed to help veterinarians and office management improve the financial performance of their practices, allowing them to increase the level of patient care and client service.
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49 August/September 2017 • TODAYSVETERINARYBUSINESS.COM you consider unacceptable and how often they are occurring. Step 4 Next, determine what disciplinary actions would be appropriate. Gen- erally accepted actions include: • Informal discussion • Verbal warning • Written warning • Final written warning • Suspension without pay • Demotion • Decrease in pay or hours • "Last chance" warning • Termination Before you move forward, it's important to ensure that the dis- ciplinary actions you are about to take are consistent with procedures listed in the employee handbook and with how you have handled similar situations. If specific disciplinary steps are listed in the handbook, follow them. Does, for example, your handbook state that specific steps will be taken in order, or does it give you flexibility to tailor disci- plinary measures to the situation? If the handbook does not appro- priately address the situation, consider revising the handbook to address future incidents. Then consider past disciplinary incidents and how you handled them. Which one is closest in nature to what you're facing now? In that previous situation, did you skip steps? If so, why? Because of the seriousness of the infraction? How does that compare with what you're dealing with today? Important caution: As you navigate a situation, be careful that you do not take disciplinary actions that could be considered discrim- inatory. It is extremely important for your practice to be consistent in how you discipline employees; if there is a reason you will not be able to handle comparable offenses in a consistent way, carefully document your reasons. Also, be sure the offense and the discipline fit one another. If an employee becomes physically aggressive with someone, for example, immediate termination may be warranted. That is not necessarily true if the issue is lateness to work. Step 5 Meet with the employee. It's important to do your best to have this discus- sion in a private area where you're unlikely to be overheard and to keep the meeting between you and the employee. This meeting will likely be tense, no matter how justified you are in your actions. Be sure to remain calm and share your message with your employee in a straightfor- ward, unemotional way. Give the employee a chance to share his side of the story. Although it is unlikely you will change your mind about the actions being taken, you may learn relevant new infor- mation. At a minimum, this may reduce the employee's resistance about the steps you're taking. Key steps include: • Develop a clear statement describing the behavior or performance deficiency that led to the discipline, and include specific examples. • Restate the expectations and requirements about the area of deficiency. • Develop a performance im- provement plan that includes a list of tasks, activities, de- liverables and outcomes that must occur within a set time. • Schedule a date to follow-up. • Review the consequences of future occurrences with this or related deficiencies. • Review the highlights of your discussion. • Document the discussion. Have the employee sign a form that summarizes the disciplinary action, and place a signed copy in the employ- ee's official personnel folder. • Be sure to give the employee a chance to share his side of the story. Although it is unlikely you will change your mind about actions being taken, you may learn relevant new information. At a min- imum, this may reduce the employee's resistance about the steps you're taking. You may wonder whether it makes sense to impose a time- frame for corrective actions. The answer is that they can backfire. If, for example, you tell him you will closely monitor over the next 60 days whether he leaves work early, the employee can comply and then revert to former behaviors, claiming that he met the standards set in the warning. Your goal is to have behaviors improve and then have that improvement sustained over the long haul. With behavioral issues, the onus for improvement is entirely upon the employee. With perfor- mance issues, you must play an active role, perhaps by providing ongoing training and more fre- quent feedback. Step 6 Document all important interac- tions with your employee, such as the disciplinary action meeting, and place a copy of your detailed notes in the employee's official personnel file. Refer to the document upon future disciplinary actions or when it's time to provide performance reviews, pay raises, promotions and the like. If the employee ever claims you treated him unfairly, this documentation will make it easier to defend your actions. Don't wait until you need to ad- dress disciplinary issues to foolproof relevant procedures. Ensure that you have processes in place before the next situation arises and you will be much better prepared to handle incidents requiring discipline. H.R. Huddle columnist Dr. Charlotte Lacroix is founder and CEO of Veterinary Business Advi- sors Inc. She serves on the Today's Veterinary Business editorial advisory board. Be careful that you do not take disciplinary actions that could be considered discriminatory.