Management skills
Managing Discipline and Grievance
A One-day course
This very practical course deals with the do’s and don’ts of managing disciplinary and grievance issues. The abolition of the statutory dispute resolution procedures does not make it any less important that line managers are fully informed of the key principles of fairness underlying both disciplinary and grievance procedures. It is also vital that managers are able to handle such procedures confidently and appropriately.
This course will update delegates on the latest employment law developments in this area and will use practical exercises and case studies to explain best practice in handling both discipline and grievance cases. This is a highly interactive course suitable for both HR professionals and line managers
Introduction and course objectives
- Unfair dismissal
- Types of claims for dismissal
- Fair reasons for dismissal
- Automatically unfair dismissal
- Qualifying periods
- Unfair dismissal remedies
- Disciplinary policies and procedures
- Understanding and applying your organisation’s procedure
- The role of ACAS
- The ACAS code of practice
- Rights of representation
- Identifying management responsibilities
- The role of the ‘companion’
- The role of Human Resources
- Practical exercise - quiz
- Dealing with misconduct and incapability
- Identifying the nature of disciplinary problems and the appropriate course of action
- Using informal action effectively
- Recognising the need for a more formal approach
- Stages in the disciplinary procedure
- Coping with stress, absence and grievance issues in relation to disciplinary matters
- The importance of the investigation
- Suspending employees
- Using witnesses and witness statements
- Practical exercise – case study
- The disciplinary meeting
- The aim of the disciplinary meeting
- The preparatory stage
- Inviting the employee to a disciplinary meeting
- Chairing and leading disciplinary meetings
- Making notes
- Keeping control
- Imposing sanctions
- Considering mitigating circumstances
- Arranging for follow-up action
- Dealing with appeals
- Writing warning letters
- Keeping a record
- Practical exercises – quiz and case studies
- Grievance policies and procedures
- Understanding and applying your organisation’s procedure
- Aim of the grievance hearing
- Informal and formal grievances meetings
- Sources of grievances
- Stages in the grievance procedure
- The preparatory stage
- Hearing grievance meetings
- Rights of representation
- Dealing with appeals
- Writing grievance letters
- Practical exercises – quiz and case study
- Skills and Competencies needed for Disciplinaries and Grievances
- Verbal and non verbal communication skills
- Building rapport
- Active listening skills
- Objectivity
- Effective questioning skills
- Summarising skills
- Managing fear and anger
- Action planning
- Practical exercises – case studies
- Conclusion
- Workshop review/discussion and close