Leadership Through Discipline
Published in Labour Law · 5 July 2022
As an employer or manager, you are required to use your leadership skills to get the best out of your staff. Showing leadership requires you to make tough decisions for the well-being of the business during stressful situations.
When it comes to staff, many employers adopt an attitude of kindness and generosity, so it follows that they would rather overlook any infringements and avoid taking disciplinary action against their staff. Employers sometimes see their businesses and staff as their extended families and so they may feel terrible about implementing any disciplinary measures against a ‘family member’.
Being too lenient towards your staff can backfire as it can have negative consequences including;
1. employees believing that there are no punitive measures for misconduct in the workplace and,
2. A culture of negligence and defiance can develop in your business.
As a good leader, your kindness should be balanced with discipline for misconduct. Therefore, the labour law emphasizes that employers should maintain a consistent and progressive disciplinary policy regarding their staff. This allows employees to know that there are rules in the workplace and consequences for breaking those rules.
What is Progressive Discipline and a Disciplinary Policy?
Progressive discipline means that the punitive measures taken should increase in severity as the misconduct increases in severity. For instance, an employee who comes in late to work once may have to face a Verbal Warning but on the second offense can be issued with a Written Warning. For most employees, progressive disciplinary measures, in the form of Counselling Sessions, Verbal Warnings and Written Warnings will be effective in reforming the guilty employee.
However, reformative disciplinary action for your staff may only be effective if the misconduct is of a less serious nature and the employee’s behaviour may be changed or stopped. Where an employee is found guilty of serious misconduct, even though it may be the first offence, it may not be likely that such behaviour or actions can be altered. Some of the misconducts that many businesses deem as serious are: Negligence; Insubordination; Abuse of company property, Dishonesty/ Theft and absconding. In these instances, the actions of misconduct could result in the employment relationship being irreparably damaged and the employee’s actions would most probably not be redeemable – resulting in a possible sanction of dismissal.
Another key term is consistency, because when an employer overlooks a misconduct due to leniency, the employer is being inconsistent and giving the employees the impression that it is OK to break the rules. Inconsistency can result in penalties being awarded against the employer at the CCMA. As an employer and a strong leader, you must try your best to maintain consistency in the application of disciplinary sanctions.
In order for your staff to work harmoniously as a team, it is necessary to regulate the relationship. As a business owner you need to put in place detailed disciplinary codes and have company policy and procedure documents. These documents state the do’s and don’ts for employees together with the possible sanctions and consequences for employee misconduct. After these ground rules are in place, the employer must then ensure that these rules are executed consistently throughout the business.
Creating and implementing a system for consistent and progressive discipline encourages a healthy working environment. The benefits of staff discipline will then begin to reflect in increased performance levels, productivity and customer service.
This article does not constitute legal advice and is based on the author’s interpretation of legislation and case law. Book a consult for legal advice or assistance pertaining to your specific matter.