Employee Discussion Paper

Currently MCOE is taking limited action to resolve the employee discipline issue by instructing program managers to discuss general problems at staff meetings, post policy reminders in employee breakrooms and retrain staff. Topics at staff meetings have covered professionalism in the workplace, absenteeism and the importance of completing tasks on time. Retraining for under achieving staff members consists of being assigned to job shadow peers that are performing well in their department. An increase in verbal warnings and documentation of rule violations has been noted especially in response to tardiness and unfinished assigned tasks. MCOE’s overall approach has been to educate employees about company policies and the reason the policies

“It provides a clear explanation of the consequences of not following the employer’s rules and evidence that the employer gave the employee every opportunity to improve” (Bruce, 2014). If the employee desires to improve, the feedback they receive from their manager will help them adapt to the company’s expectations. If the employee continues to violate company rules then management has a paper trail showing that they have attempted to work with the employee and progressive discipline is required. Ensuring employees are informed and keeping track of issues is an important part of the disciplinary process however, it is ineffective if management does not have the power to enforce the rules. Penalties are necessary to stop deviant behavior and if necessary terminate employees who refuse to abide by company rules. Retraining employees can be helpful in certain instances but in this case, it is not beneficial. Under achieving employees at MCOE are not experiencing a misunderstanding of their job duties, they are intentionally deciding to slack off because they believe they can get away with this behavior. The discipline process is incomplete as managers fail to regularly observe employee behavior and deliver negative consequences when they do observe rule violations. Even though MCOE is attempting to address the issue, they fall short of solving the problem. By not

It is necessary to instill a discipline program in the workplace and continually monitor that it is accomplishing its purpose of improving performance and creating a positive and fair work environment. A disciplined environment will encourage employees to be on their best behavior, boosting morale and productivity. In order to resolve this critical human resource issue, MCOE needs to remove the barriers that are preventing its managers from effectively executing discipline. First, program managers need to receive training on how to administer discipline successfully, consistently and in a corrective format. Their ability to interpret policies, employee behavior and determine a suitable response no matter the inconvenience is vital. They need to be made aware how their inaction is effecting work teams and impacting the organization. Second, the MCOE administration needs to call a series of meetings with the employee union and come to an understanding about acceptable and unacceptable employee behavior. A memorandum of understanding would be drawn up that both parties agree to, limiting future disputes when it is clear that employees have violated the rules and should be penalized. Once these two directives are in place the of discipline will be free from obstruction and program managers will be able to discipline employees without union