When handling a formal disciplinary meeting, the starting point is to prepare:

• Consider whether the allegations justify the temporary suspension of the employee. If so, you should issue a confirmation of suspension letter . Such suspension should be on full pay.
• Collect all the facts of the case. Check the employee's personnel file for relevant information.
• Ensure that you have gathered information from witnesses, if relevant. Ideally this should be in the form of written witness statements - get these signed and dated.
• Wherever possible, have someone other than the disciplining manager undertake the initial investigations. Never allow a disciplinary investigation with the accused person turn into a disciplinary hearing - keep the two separate.
• Check that you are fully familiar with your disciplinary procedure , as you are required to follow it.
• Where a disabled employee is involved, you will be required to make "reasonable adjustments" to ensure that the employee is not disadvantaged in any way - so if applicable, find out from your employee what assistance is needed.

Ensure that the employee is fully notified - in writing - in advance of the disciplinary meeting. Bear in mind the following:

• The employee must be given sufficient notice of the meeting, so that he/she can adequately prepare. In practice this will normally be at least a day or two - in more complicated cases, more notice would be reasonable. This applies particularly if dismissal is contemplated.
• The employee should be told in advance:
  • that the meeting is a formal disciplinary meeting
  • that he/she may bring a work colleague or trade union representative along if desired
  • the date, time and location of the meeting
  • that the meeting could result in disciplinary action. If dismissal may be an outcome, then the letter should state this.
  • that the meeting will provide the opportunity to state his/her case
  • full details of the allegations and the basis for these so that the employee understands what it is he or she is alleged to have done wrong, the reasons why this is not acceptable, and can properly consider a response. Copies of any information which will be discussed at the meeting should be supplied in advance. We would normally also recommend that any documentary evidence to be relied upon is supplied in advance, including witness statements. In the case of the latter, you should consider carefully whether to give only the evidence to the employee, or the statements without identifying the witness, as in some cases you may consider it important to maintain the witnesses' confidentiality (chiefly harassment or bullying cases but also where there is genuine and well-founded fear of reprisal).
• These details must be confirmed in writing - use our letter requesting the employee to attend the disciplinary hearing. But also if the employee has difficulty reading, or English is not his or her first language, then you should explain the content of the letter to him or her verbally.
• Ensure that the employee has a copy of your disciplinary procedure .
• Ask the employee to let you know in advance whether he or she will be accompanied, and if so, by whom, and also to let you have the details of anyone he or she would like to call as a witness.

Before starting the meeting, try to ensure that there will be no interruptions - divert your phone, and turn off your mobile!

The manager should take the lead in introducing the meeting:

• Introduce those present and their roles. (The employee's representative is present to observe, listen and take notes but may ask questions and put forward any salient points on behalf of the employee.)
• Confirm that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss the situation and to determine whether or not formal disciplinary action is appropriate.
• Confirm the structure and expected timing of the meeting (but bear in mind that you can never foresee how long the meeting will last, as you do not know what arguments the employee will put forward).

Ensure a written record of what is being said at the meeting is taken by a nominated person. Ideally this would be an HR or personnel representative, however, if this is not possible, then the Company Secretary or a senior manager who is not involved in the case or in the appeal process would be suitable.

Explain to the employee (and his or her representative) that you are taking notes and that the employee will be given a copy of these.

Document everything fully - so that there can be no arguments afterwards as to what was said and what action taken.

Outline the allegations against the employee. Supporting evidence, witness statements etc, should be presented.

It is important to take a formal but polite approach throughout the meeting. Do not argue. Avoid contact or gestures that the employee may consider threatening.

The employee should be asked to respond to the allegations made. It is critically important that you remain unbiased and use the disciplinary meeting to gather information.

You need, therefore, to fully explore with the employee:

• what information he/she would like you to consider
• what he/she agrees with
• what he/she disagrees with and why
• what supporting evidence there may be
• what, if any, mitigating circumstances he/she would like you to consider.

In some cases, it may be appropriate to offer the employee an adjournment before he/she responds to the allegations made.

• Keep an open mind and ask questions. Listen carefully to the answers.
• Allow the employee to ask questions.
• Call any witnesses and allow time for both you and the employee to question them. Ensure that witnesses are only present whilst they are actually giving evidence.
• If things become heated, or if you want to check out particular facts, do remember that you can adjourn the meeting at any stage to take advice.

At the end of the meeting, summarise what has happened and then consider an adjournment before making your decision.

It is good practice to adjourn before announcing your decision. This will allow you to:

• carefully consider what has been said
• interview other people, if relevant and especially if any new points came out of the meeting
• check your disciplinary procedure
• consider precedents and how similar situations have been handled in the past
• reach an objective decision.

An adjournment also allows the employee to consider if there is anything else he/she wishes to add. It allows you to act fairly and to be seen as doing so.

Following the adjournment, check if the employee has anything he/she wishes to add (and fully consider it, if so. If necessary, take another adjournment.)

The manager (or panel, if a panel is involved) must keep an open mind and decide whether the employee is guilty on the balance of probabilities. If the employee is believed guilty of the alleged misconduct, the next stage is to determine the appropriate level of disciplinary action to take.

In arriving at your decision, consider:

• the previous disciplinary record of the employee (normally only taking into account warnings which are still "live")
• his/her length of service
• the seriousness of the misconduct
• precedents - how previous comparable instances have been handled. You are expected to treat people fairly and consistently and it would be unfair to dismiss one employee for an incident for which another employee received a verbal warning.
• any mitigating circumstances or provocation.

Confirm your decision with a concise explanation. If the decision is for formal disciplinary action, then this should be confirmed in writing via a verbal warning , a written warning or a final written warning . In the worst case you will need to dismiss, either with notice or, if the employee is believed guilty of gross misconduct , without notice. Note that, other than in cases of gross misconduct, an employment tribunal is unlikely to find a dismissal fair unless a final written warning was given prior to the dismissal.

The employee must be informed of his/her right of appeal, and the manner and timescale in which to do so, and for disciplinary action short of dismissal, you should confirm what standard of conduct or performance is required of the employee, what support is available to help him/her to succeed, the timescale for achieving this improvement, a review date, and what will result if there is no improvement or a repetition of the misconduct in question.

If either you, the employee or the employee's companion cannot attend a scheduled meeting or appeal meeting, for a reason that was not reasonably foreseeable at the time the meeting was arranged (eg illness), the meeting must be rearranged. If the employee's companion cannot attend, then the employee must propose an alternative date within five days - if acceptable you must invite all parties to attend at this time.

You are only obliged to rearrange the meeting once.

If the employee appeals against the decision, an appeal hearing will need to be arranged, again following the principles above. Write to the employee confirming the invitation to the appeal hearing. An appeal hearing is a further meeting with the employee - not just a review of the paperwork. Where possible, the appeal should be heard by a manager senior to the one making the original decision and someone who has not been involved in making the original decision which is being appealed against. If you work in a small organisation and there is no-one senior or independent, you may wish to consider inviting an external advisor to attend to get a "fresh pair of ears" and to advise.

The statutory procedures do not require an employee to put an appeal in writing - so do allow appeals which are lodged verbally, or by email etc. They also do not impose a deadline by which the employee must appeal - the only requirement is that the employee should appeal "without unreasonable delay".

The role of the person hearing the appeal is to review the decision made and to consider whether it was a fair one. As it is the employee who is making the appeal, it is common to introduce the participants and the reason for the meeting, and to then invite the employee to outline, in full, the grounds for the appeal and to say why he/she considers the decision was not fair. Similar to a disciplinary hearing, the employee has the right to be accompanied, and either party may invite witnesses to put forward further evidence.

An appeal hearing would normally concentrate on the points the employee raises, but if there is doubt as to whether the initial proceedings were conducted properly, then it may be advisable to hold a complete re-hearing.

If the employee puts forward new evidence which was not considered first time round then you will need to consider this evidence to see if it puts a different complexion on the matter. If it potentially does, you will need to hear the evidence in full and may then need to adjourn to investigate further.

You may wish to invite the manager responsible for the original decision to outline the case for this - to summarise the investigation, the points considered at the disciplinary hearing, the reason for deciding on what he/she felt was an appropriate penalty.

Following the appeal hearing, you may wish to adjourn to consider what the employee has said, or to take further advice, or investigate further, especially if new evidence has come to light.

The person hearing the appeal needs to decide:

• Was there reasonable belief that the allegations were true?
• Was the investigation full and thorough?
• Was the process correct?
• Was the decision reasonable, in the circumstances?

When considering the original penalty, you are not concerned with whether the decision was the right one in the circumstances but whether it was "reasonable". Consider each of the points raised and decide whether it indicates bias or inappropriate concerns by the original decision maker. Once you have been through all the arguments and considered each one in turn, decide whether the original decision was reasonable. If so, you uphold the decision; if not you uphold the appeal and either cancel the disciplinary warning, reduce it to a lesser one, or, if the appeal is against dismissal, reinstate the employee.

Whatever the eventual outcome of the appeal, do write to confirm this. Whilst you do not want to get into further arguments, it is usually worth going into sufficient detail so that a tribunal can see that you have given full consideration to each of the points raised.

Where an employee feels that a warning has been unfairly awarded, because of discrimination or personal vendetta etc, it would be better to allow him or her to raise a grievance against this.

Remember that the purpose of a disciplinary warning is to improve performance, not to punish! Review the performance of the employee and find ways of supporting him/her to improve.