Human Resources 101

Human Resources and Social Development Canada has put together a set of guidelines to applying progressive discipline in the workplace. While designed to assist federally regulated workplaces, there is lots of helpful information for any employer in Canada.

Click to download: Progressive Discipline Guidelines (pdf – 389 KB)

Do you have concerns with an employee’s work performance?

Here are the steps for applying progressive discipline in the work place

Most employees want to do what is expected of them. You can help by ensuring that company policies are made clear and applied consistently and fairly to everyone. However, as an employer, you may need to deal with problems caused by the performance of an employee. You should:

• act early… before poor work becomes a habit;
• be fair… by clarifying the job expectations with the employee;
• improve the employee’s performance… by providing appropriate direction;
• try to solve the problem… before it gets to the dismissal stage by applying the “progressive discipline process”.

The steps outlined in these pages describe the process known as progressive discipline. It allows you to build on the skills of your present staff and to make clear to everyone what the company policy is on job expectations. It improves the efficiency of your company by saving you the time and money involved in dismissing one employee and hiring a new one. As an employer, the way you apply the progressive discipline process is the basis of your defence if an employee files a complaint of unjust dismissal.

Progressive Discipline Guidelines