Once you're at the stage of issuing a warning letter, you may want to ask the employee to sign somewhere on the document to confirm that they received it and to verify that they understand and agree to conditions they must meet. Some employees are resistant to that idea but Kane suggests that "if they say they won't sign it, then the smart thing to say is 'okay, would you mind writing something that says I refuse to sign?' and oftentimes they'll say yes."
Dig Deeper: How to Write a Termination Notice
How a Write a Warning Letter for Employee Conduct: What it Should Contain
There are three main components of the body of a warning letter to an employee. First you need to outline the prior conduct that was unacceptable then you need to identify, by contrast, the required or expected conduct. "Lastly," says Kane, "and this is what's most often left out, is the consequences of a failure to follow that prescribed or proscribed behavior." Reed notes that it's important to be as specific as possible both in the text of the warning letter and in the verbal communications that lead up to it. That way, there is as little room as possible for misinterpretation.
The tone of the warning letter can also vary dramatically depending on the severity of the infraction the employee has committed. At the two extremes, you can either create "a formal letter that's really designed to open the door for improving the employee's performance," says Williams, or one "that's really just documenting the reasons why you've got to let them go."
Dig Deeper: A Sample Behavioral Change Warning
How a Write a Warning Letter for Employee Conduct: How to Deliver It
Once you've written the warning letter, the most difficult task is still ahead of you. It's not the kind of thing you can just leave on an employee's desk or shoot to them in an e-mail. It has to be accompanied by an in-person conversation. This conversation is also a good point of reference for the employee in case "you worded the letter more harshly or more leniently than you intended to," Williams says. If you have a virtual employee, follow up on the written or electronic copy of the letter with a phone call or video chat.
Since small businesses often have closely-knit workforces with almost familial bonds, it can be uncomfortable for an employer to confront an employee about their behavior, which sometimes leads the manager or CEO to postpone the conversation until the conduct becomes intolerable. At that point, the supervisor's anger and frustration will likely come across in-person or in a letter, which is counterproductive. Responding to developing problems quickly and role-playing the conversation with a fellow supervisor or manager before reaching out to the employee can help you avoid such an outcome.
Even if you keep your temper in check, it is easy to accidentally humiliate the employee if you don't consider their need for privacy in the matter. Holding the conversation privately and holding it without the person's co-workers knowing are too separate things, but if you exercise discretion and communicate via e-mail that you need to speak with the employee, you can keep the situation under wraps.
Finally Williams suggests that you could soften the blow of the warning letter with positive feedback but that you shouldn't do so at the expense of clarity. "I think that it's very import to stress the positive, but at the point where you're writing a letter and you're thinking of firing the person, you have to make sure that you're not including the positive to make it easier for yourself," she says.
Dig Deeper: How to Communicate in a Crisis
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How a Write a Warning Letter for Employee Conduct: Being Consistent
An important component of warning an employee that they need improvement is being consistent over time. You will begin to look foolish very quickly, and possibly even weather lawsuits, if you criticize one employee for his or her lateness and not another.
In addition to drawing on your policies and precedents in your company's history, one way to be more consistent is to have standard templates for documenting problems as they develop. The consistency must encompass not just the documentation, or even the warning letter itself, but the follow up actions you take. "If you say, 'one more time and I'm going to fire you,' and you don't, then you're in trouble," Kane says. You could very well lose your authority not just in the eyes of the employee you're attempting to penalize but in front of the rest of your staff.
Dig Deeper: How to Handle Employee Complaints
How a Write a Warning Letter for Employee Conduct: Following Up
Whether your employee responds positively or negatively to your warning letter can depend largely on how you handle the situation. If you've handled it well, then the desired behavior will begin to manifest in the coming days and weeks after your conversation. However, if you've let your anger or frustration with the employee seep into the tone of your written and verbal communications, they can respond with withdrawal behaviors – often characterized by a lowered desire to complete their work.
Another possible response is that the employee will feel personally slighted, and he or she might even want to take revenge of some kind. Of course the primary indicator that the warning letter has been a failure is that there is no behavioral change on the part of the employee.
If the employee responds well to the warning letter and changes their behavior, be sure to follow up with positive feedback for their efforts to change their conduct. If the employee reacts poorly to the warning letter you need to decide if it's because you handled the situation badly or because they simply do not want to accommodate the rules you laid out for them.
If the latter situation is the case, you want that employee out of your company as soon as possible so that they do not cause further problems. But if the former is the case and you were overly harsh in meting out your criticism, Williams says: "I don't think you can underplay the value of an apology. You can sit down and say 'I really communicated this in a way I didn't intend and I really value you as an employee.'"
Dig Deeper: How to Improve Employee Retention
