Concept of Progressive Discipline and Importance of Effective Termination Procedure

Progressive discipline is a concept that implies that disciplinary penalties are structured to correct unacceptable conduct where possible. The concept simply means that disciplines starts with mild first offense punishment, and gradual increase of the punishment for similar or different misconduct until termination is considered the most suitable punishment. The progressive discipline application varies extensively. For instance a warning, reprimands or suspensions may be used for the first serious misconduct or offence in an organization, based on the seriousness of the offense and the possible danger it impose on others in the organization. The disciplinary action to the first offense is advised to be mild, and increase the counseling aspect (Purchase, 2015). A lot of communication is needed to understand why the employee behaved like that and to enable employee to understand why what was done was an offense that deserve punishment. A problem solving approach should be adopted to resolve the issue, especially if the offence is performance or operational based. A repetition of the offence or committing of another offense should impose a more severe punishment than the first one. In case of poor performance, lack of improvement even after solving the identified problems in the right manner should also attract a higher punishment. If the situation gets worse, a termination may be given, especially when the employee shows no sign for improvement (Purchase, 2015).

Progressive discipline provides a clear framework of workers termination. It involves filing of the workers disciplinary progress based on the committed offenses. It include filing the case including how the case was handled, the investigation process, finding, and defined punishment in stages. All offenses encounters are filed until the last termination if it happens. This is very important for the company in filing a defense for any kind of legal dispute between the company and the terminated employee. Effective termination procedure clearly shows what transpired before a termination was made. This protects the company from unnecessary penalties for illegal termination, or furnishing of the company’s reputation for improper treatment of the workers. It also prevents litigation cost and time wastage (Purchase, 2015).

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