Help your managers take the fear and stress out of dealing with discipline and grievance in the workplace
Contents
SECTION ONE: THE SKILLS FOR MANAGING DISCIPLINE AND GRIEVANCE
1: Getting started:
An opportunity for participants to explore their feelings in relation to discipline and grievance, followed by a lively team exercise which helps develop a checklist for rules and procedures. Group work is used to identify the skills used to manage discipline and grievance. Participants are encouraged to complete Learning Logs to keep a record of their learning, whether of a single activity or of all activities in the pack.
2: That's not what I meant:
This activity provides an opportunity for participants to consider and develop their own listening skills and to practise establishing rapport with others, to avoid the confusion that can arise from lack of understanding.
3: Doing the dirty work:
During this activity, participants identify their own personal values and develop strategies for managing potential value conflicts. They go on to use artwork to identify their support networks and to note and develop ways of removing blocks to effective use of their support network.
4: Just a minute:
Managing assertively is one of the key skills for the effective control and support of staff. This activity gives participants the opportunity to explore how personal attitudes and feelings affect assertiveness. Artwork is used to consider their behaviour patterns and a short noisy exercise helps them think about passive, aggressive and assertive behaviour. Role-play is used by the trainer to demonstrate these behaviours, which the group then analyse.
5: Saying it like it is:
All managers have witnessed inappropriate behaviour in staff they line-manage. How this behaviour is dealt with is crucial to individual and team well-being and to the psychological contract staff have with the organisation. This activity provides an opportunity for participants to identify and practise the skills for confronting and challenging inappropriate behaviour and giving constructive criticism.
6: Digging deeper:
Questions are a valuable tool for managing discipline and grievance. A fun exercise starts the activity and helps participants think about how questions are used, and helps to build trust. Small groups then use a structured exercise to practise using open and probing questions to help investigations and problem solving.
7: Friends in high places:
Who you know can be as important as what you know, in determining your success at work. Participants use visuals to clarify their own sphere of influence and then practise presenting themselves positively. Then, working in groups, participants draw conclusions about how they can influence organisational culture.
8: Finding the pieces:
This activity looks at some of the problems that arise when collecting information and considers ways to find the truth. Participants work in pairs to identify how their own assumptions affect their information collection and small groups use controversial, contested statements to explore finding the truth.
9: The jigsaw puzzle:
A jigsaw puzzle helps the group start to think about some of the problems involved in making sense of information. Participants then use story telling to explore their current use of logical deduction and intuitive reactions. Case notes are used to differentiate facts from opinions and these are used to develop good practice in case recording for disciplinary action.
10: Completing the picture:
Managers seeking to deal with disciplinary and grievance issues are often faced with complex problems and difficult decisions. The ability to think 'outside the box', to think creatively, will help managers identify the optimum way forward. This activity takes participants through a range of creative-thinking and problem-solving exercises and techniques, concluding with a lively problem-solving and decision-making exercise.
11: Make a case:
Participants have the opportunity to practise the skills for negotiation, presenting a case and agreeing decisions using small-group work, a 'goldfish bowl' exercise and structured feedback. Thses skills are an essential part of the disciplinary process to ensure procedures are carried out fairly.
SECTION TWO: SCENARIOS TO DEVELOP COMPETENCE
12: Why me?
Managers are often faced with aggrieved staff and will need to ensure that they have friends in high places. Using a quiz, participants identify legitimate grievances and then move on to consider how to manage them. They also consider the emotions they experience in managing grievances and how best to deal with these.
13: Let's talk about this:
Performance management is crucial to organisational success. This activity provides an opportunity for participants to work through a case study, using discussion and then role-play to practise giving constructive criticism and setting and monitoring performance standards with a staff member, with a view to avoiding use of the disciplinary procedure.
14: You've got to be joking:
Assertive behaviour is used to help manage insubordination and avoid disciplinary action if possible. Participants use their own experiences to develop 'mini-dramas' for practising assertiveness and plan how to manage more assertively in the future and tackle minor misconduct early.
15: Keep it in the family:
Case studies on family problems are used to practise the skills of sorting information. Participants use picture puzzles to test out their own logical reasoning, before working in small groups to explore the case studies through role-play interviews and group decision making. This work is used to develop ideas for good practice in managing discipline in relation to family problems.
16: It was only a joke!
Harassment from colleagues, seniors and juniors is always difficult to manage. As an individual and as a manager, what is the optimum response? This activity provides an opportunity for managers to consider responses to a variety of forms of harassment, from people in different positions in the organisational hierachy and, in relation to harassment, any value conflicts they experience. Participants then move on to consider issues and principles in managing a disciplinary interview.
17: In sickness and in health:
What is the best way to deal with staff who are sick? Staff who have occasional weeks off sick, staff who take the odd day off each month - what is the best tactic? Following work on a range of scenarios, participants practise their skills, especially their listening skills, by holding a disciplinary interview with a member of staff who has been off sick; they move on to confirm good practice in holding disciplinary interviews.
18: What have you done?
This activity uses questioning to help manage poor performance and develop guidance for appeals procedure and practice. A 'milling around' exercise, using questions, starts the activity and a case study is then used to develop questions to use in managing situations involving poor performance. Different perspectives from the case study are used to produce ideas on good practice for appeals
19: Where were you?
Absence is one of the most common disciplinary issues. This activity gives participants the opportunity to practise investigation skills to handle disciplinary cases that involve absence. Participants role-play a 'mock appeal' and give and receive feedback on the skills they use to investigate the case. In a review of the exercise, participants consider the implication of their decisions and any need for further action.
20: Pull yourself together:
From time to time, the use of alcohol and/or drugs intrudes into many workplaces and poses a problem for managers. What strategies can be adopted to manage the situation? If the situation warrants, how do you conduct and make decisions in a disciplinary meeting? Participants consider how to manage a range of drug/alcohol issues and, using role-play, move on to practise decision making in the context of a disciplinary meeting.
21: Money, money, money:
Participants consider a range of scenarios dealing with fraud and possible incidents of gross misconduct. Role-play is used to consider a fraud case and participants practise skills for negotiation, presenting and making a case which may result in dismissal. Experiences from the role-play are used to develop general good practice in managing discipline.
