This overview of investigations, disciplinary and grievance procedures offers an introduction to best practice when carrying out investigations, holding a disciplinary meeting or following a grievance procedure. For support with carrying out any disciplinaries and grievances, contact us today – we offer HR support and advice on a pay-as-you-go or retained service basis, depending on your needs.

As an employer or manager, it is very likely that at some point, someone who works for you will do something they weren’t supposed to do. Your first inclination might have been to sack the accused and get rid of the problem! Does that sound familiar? But unfortunately, that’s just setting yourself up for potentially more costly problems down the line.

To avoid a potential employment tribunal situation, it’s imperative you follow the correct investigation, disciplinary or grievance procedures as set out in employment law, and if you have any doubt about what you doing, always seek support from an hr professional.

What is an investigation?

An investigation is essentially a factfinding exercise in response to an incident, issue or complaint in the workplace. This is the first step in any potential disciplinary or grievance situation and will help you establish what the appropriate process should be.

See our guide on ‘How To… Conduct an Investigation Meeting’ for a step-by-step process.

Hold on…

What’s the difference between disciplinary and grievance procedures?

A disciplinary procedure is used to address employee conduct or performance. An example might be failing to turn to up for a shift.

If the results of your disciplinary investigation process mean disciplinary action is required, there is a correct procedure that must be followed. This lays out the actions that must be taken and the time frame in which they must be done, to ensure the employee is treated fairly and given an appropriate chance to respond to any accusations of wrongdoing.

Click here for our guide to disciplinary procedure.

A grievance procedure is used to address a problem or complaint raised by an employee. An example might be an accusation of bullying by a line manager.

Again it’s vital that you follow the correct procedure when dealing with any potential grievance claim.

Click here for our guide to grievance procedure

What happens if I don’t follow the correct disciplinary and grievance procedures?

You may think the evidence of wrongdoing is clear cut and the accused may be such a nightmare, that you’re justified in getting rid of them as quickly as possible. However, unless you can show you have carried out a thorough grievance investigation and completed correct disciplinary and grievance processes, the individual in question may be able to take you to employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.

In these cases, it doesn’t actually matter if the individual has committed the wrongdoing, what matters is whether you can prove the process you went through to dismiss them was fair. If you can’t, you could have to financially compensate the person who caused the problem in the first place! It really isn’t worth the risk – financially, or to your reputation.

Whilst following the step-by-step procedure will help to ensure you follow your legal obligations, we understand that carrying out disciplinary hearings and dealing with grievances can be stressful. Emotions can run high when employees are facing disciplinary action and it’s never easy knowing you might have to dismiss someone (no matter how much of a pain they are!).

It’s important to be empathetic, however remaining professional and personally detached throughout is essential. If you need support handling investigations, disciplinary and grievance procedures, we can help. Our experienced team can guide and support you through the process and help you bring the situation to a satisfactory resolution so you can move forward.

Contact us via our contact form or just give us a call, 01794 329470. We offer a Pay-As-You-Go HR support services, or, like many of our clients, choose our Retained HR service for an on-going support package.

We also run disciplinary and grievance training which can provide your management team with the skills and knowledge they need to have confidence in managing a disciplinary or grievance process. We run several one day open courses on this topic throughout the year, or for larger groups we can run disciplinary and grievance training as an in house course for your organisation.