Unraveling Employee Misconduct

Each year, companies suffer the consequences of employees who throw caution to the wind and put their employers at risk. It’s difficult to imagine that there are some employees who deliberately create havoc in their own workplaces. Theft, fraud, harassment, crude behavior, and other problems can happen to the best employers. Addressing employee misconduct effectively is essential to building a safe, inclusive workplace and creating an ethical organizational culture.

Misconduct, by definition, describes?employee?behavior that's inappropriate for the workplace and negatively impacts the?employee's?work, environment or peers. In this article, we’ll examine the different types of employee misconduct and how to handle them effectively

Types of Misconduct

1.????General (simple) misconduct

The first type, general (or simple) misconduct, involves behavior that doesn’t intend to harm others or the company. It usually does not require immediate termination of any employee. Examples of general employee misconducts include;

·???????Perennial lateness to work

·???????Making Inappropriate remarks to other employees or employer

·???????Inaccurately reporting information on a job application – discovered after the employee has been hired

·???????Not following the orders of a direct supervisor

·???????Getting caught smoking in a non-smoking area of the property.

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2.????Gross misconduct

In the case of gross employee misconduct, an employee has acted in a way that warrants immediate termination — the legal term being “summarily dismissed”. This kind of behavior is egregious in nature, meant to cause the company and other co-workers harm.?

????Examples of gross misconduct may include but are not limited to:

·???????Theft of property or finances from the company (including co-workers, customers, and vendors) or by way of fraudulent transactions

·???????Property damage or negligence caused intentionally by an employee

·???????Failure to follow safety protocols that put the employee and co-workers at risk

·???????Serious?insubordination

How to address and handle employee misconduct

1.Get an effective disciplinary policy in place.

Your employees need to understand what the consequences for misconduct are. Your disciplinary policy should explain disciplinary action for employee misconduct, what progressive steps will be taken in the process and what the grounds for immediate termination are. Be sure that your employees are aware of this and sign off on this in the employment agreement. Also, make this policy easily accessible, for instance, by including it in your employee handbook or company wiki.

2.Outline a process for reporting employee misconduct.

Indicate how employees can report a misconduct incident and to whom? Can they do it anonymously? It’s essential to protect all parties involved in a complaint, whether in the reporting phase or the investigation process. Employees might fear retaliation and feel that the organization won’t take any action. For this reason, it is essential that your team members understand how they can report employee misconduct safely and how your company will process these reports.

3. Investigate any and all claims of employee misconduct.

It’s your responsibility to ensure nothing is left out. Define how you are going to investigate misconduct, who is going to be involved, who will be interviewed or observed, and other aspects of the investigation plan.

Bear in mind that your employee misconduct investigation and handling process needs to be in line with the local legislation.

4. Gather information and document everything related to the incident.

You’ll need this information for investigating employee misconduct so that you can handle it in an effective way. Document exact dates, times, places, and conversations related to the employee misconduct incident. You need to document your investigation to have defensible proof if your employee decides to take legal action.

5. React swiftly but carefully to worker misconduct.

If employee misconduct happens at your workplace, you need to be quick to take action and?start handling the situation?to maintain the safety and security of the workplace. Be careful and take an active stance. This may also help you prevent further misconduct such as retaliation.

6. Communicate the company policy on employee misconduct.

If an incident occurs, it is critical to use this moment to remind all other employees that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. Promote an ethical workplace culture and empower employees to report misconduct if and when they witness it.

7. Decide on an external communication plan.

Misconduct by an employee can be embarrassing and disruptive to any business. Often, the press gets involved, and people post on their social networks. For this reason, you need to have a plan for communicating the incident to the necessary sources and to internal employee teams to protect the company.

Handling employee misconduct is unpleasant for anyone involved. However, having a solid process on addressing it will help you make your organization a better, safer, and more?inclusive place to work. Use the above tips to create an employee misconduct plan for managing any events from disrupting your organization.