Whether an employer should deal with an employee’s poor performance through its disciplinary or capability procedure will depend on the nature of the poor performance.

First off, you need to carry out an investigation, which will include meeting with the employee concerned to establish whether the employee’s poor performance is conduct or capability related.

Conduct related means that the employee has some control over their actions, and that they may be “wilfully” not performing to the required standards. If it is conduct related, then it’s appropriate to follow your company Disciplinary Procedure.

Capability related means they do not have control over their poor performance and its likely to need intervention such as more training or shadowing someone else performing well in their role. However, if the employee’s poor performance is capability related, then you should follow your company Capability Procedure for performance improvement.

It is not always obvious whether an employee’s poor performance is due to capability or conduct, and this is why the investigation stage of the process is really important. Its about trying to get to the root cause of why the poor performance is happening and this takes great listening and questioning skills.

In some cases, it will be a combination of the two, and you may therefore need to adopt the procedure and change course if the evidence that emerges suggests that this is necessary. Irrespective of which procedure you follow, you should make sure that your Disciplinary and Capability Procedures follow the ACAS Code of Practice.

How can we help?

If you need a Disciplinary or Capability Procedure, then please get in touch and we’d be happy to provide you with either of these policies that meets the Acas Code of Practice for just £50 each.

If you’ve got a performance issue that you need help with, then please book a meeting with us and we’d be happy to help. You can book a meeting here.