Undertaking performance management of an employee can be a complex and lengthy process. Employers must get this right because there is the potential for a costly claim to be filed which could include an Unfair Dismissal, General Protections, Discrimination, Bullying or Workers’ Compensation claim.
Employers should understand that even if they have a valid reason to terminate an employee, they may have a claim brought against them procedural fairness is not afforded to the employee.
Before considering dismissal, it is important to commence a formal performance management involving meeting with the employee and attempting to improve performance.
Our Business Advice Hotline gets lots of questions about the performance management process including warnings.
Our advice is that when you provide a warning to an employee, you must consider the correct format and content, including why are you issuing this warning and ensuring it is for a valid reason.
We also get asked if a verbal warning counts. The answer to this is a verbal warning does count but you must document it. Written warnings are however the best evidence.
You should be clear to the employee on what is expected of them moving forward. When you discuss with your employee about a warning it’s important to be specific about what the issues are and leave emotion out of it.
Need help to manage an issue or maybe you just want to learn more?
Need to find out more rest assured we are going to do a deeper dive into performance management, warnings, termination of employment, tips on avoiding claims and a whole heap more at the webinar on The Do’s and Don’ts of Performance Management on 12 September 2024 — it’s not too late to join our webinar here
Need immediate support?
Need some advice or support on how to performance manage an employee? South Australian Business Chamber members can call the Business Advice Hotline on (08) 8300 0000 (select option 1).
