Performance management

A disciplinary and grievance policy are required by law for employers. 

Other policies are not legally required but are recommended. More information on policies can also be found in the becoming an employer section of the toolkit. 

With performance management, one area to consider as a parish is to make sure you firstly have a suitable structure in place to manage any performance issues which may occur in the future and also for day-to-day management. A suitable structure can include a sub-committee of the PCC comprising, for example of, one churchwarden and a couple of others including the vicar/rector who can make any routine decisions. This means that if anything crops up which needs to be considered through appeal etc, an independent person can take the lead.

Jump to: Disciplinary | Capability | Attendance | Grievance | Complaints

Disciplinary

ACAS provide guidance on workplace discipline. Where performance or conduct issues are a minor nature it is best to first seek an informal resolution to any difficulty. Often a prompt and informal one-to-one discussion is all that is needed to improve an employee’s conduct or performance or to get it back on track.

In such circumstances;

• Talk with the individual in private
• Remain positive and constructive and encourage two-way discussion
• Explain the shortcomings in conduct or performance to the employee and reaffirm the expected standard
• Ask if any further support is required to meet the required standard
• Listen to the employee’s explanation
• Agree on any improvement needed and focus the discussion on finding ways to achieve the necessary improvement
• Agree any actions to be taken to achieve improvement and by when
• Agree on a date for a follow-up meeting

Following the meeting, make a record of;

• The date the meeting took place
• What was discussed at the meeting
• The outcome of the meeting
• Any review date set

This should be shared with the employee, preferably in writing i.e. via email.

Where an employee has still failed to meet the required standards of performance or conduct, you may have no choice but to commence dismissal proceedings, once a full disciplinary procedure has been followed.

ACAS has also published a discipline and grievances at work guide. You should use this procedure in cases of gross misconduct and consider it in cases of continued misconduct where previous warnings have been given. This procedure should not be used for the first stage in any situation or for any minor breaches.

Always refer to your own disciplinary procedure to ensure you are adhering. The ACAS disciplinary procedure sets out the minimum requirements.

Conduct vs Gross Misconduct

Misconduct refers to inappropriate behaviours or behaviours that breach expectations or an organisations policies however are not significant or serious enough to warrant immediate dismissal. Examples of misconduct could include persistent lateness, inappropriate language or behaviour towards colleagues or minor breaches of health and safety regulations.

Gross Misconduct relates to much more serious behaviours or circumstances which can justify immediate dismissal without notice or pay in lieu of notice. These behaviours significantly undermine the trust of the employment relationship. Examples of gross misconduct include:

• Theft or fraud
• Physical violence or bullying
• Damage to property
• Significant breaches to health and safety rules

Capability

The capability procedure mirrors the disciplinary procedure. This is because, even though the procedure aims to rectify the problem, there is a possibility that this is not possible, and the disciplinary process would need to be commenced.

The capability procedure focuses on the individual’s capability to do the job. Incapability may be caused by illness, disability or inability to meet the requirements of the role.

The capability procedure should be used for handling issues related to long-term illness, disability, or just long-term absence from work. It is also helpful where an employee cannot meet the demands of the job – and can be used to send a clear message about performance levels required and the consequences of continued incapability to meet standards.

You should redeploy the person to a more suitable job where possible. Where an employee has failed to meet the required performance standards, you may have no choice but to commence dismissal proceedings, once a full capability procedure has been followed.

ACAS has published a guide to discipline and grievances at work. You should use this procedure in cases on incapability where previous warnings have been given and there is no suitable alternative. This procedure should not be used for low-level performance issues.

Attendance

Attendance management is what organisations use to monitor attendance, including absence and timekeeping.

An absence management policy is an effective way to ensure that absence is managed fairly and consistently. 

Addressing sickness absence can help to reduce absence levels, improve employee morale and wellbeing, boost productivity and save money. 

Return to Work Meetings

Return to work meetings are discussions which take place when an employee has been absent from work. Best practise would be for return to work conversations to take place for absences of any length, whether that be 1 day or 30 days off. 

Using return to work meetings consistently can help you to identify any trends in absence and any underlying causes of an employees absence. Most importantly, it supports in fulfilling your duty of care to the employee to be confident that they are fit to be at work. 

You can find more information about return to work interviews here. 

The ACAS guide to managing attendance and absence can be found online.

Grievance

Disagreements at work are inevitable. Sometimes they become intractable and need to be addressed. Having a set grievance procedure can depersonalise the process so that a resolution can be achieved.

A PCC will typically be too small to involve an independent person for the employee to raise a grievance with. If this is the case, it is in your interests to make it clear that all grievances will be treated fairly and objectively even if the grievance is about something you have said or done.

Sometimes, in smaller teams, grievances can be taken as a personal criticism. Following your grievance procedure can make it easier to hear any grievance in a calm and objective manner, being as fair to the employee as possible in the resolution of the problem.

All discussions, whether informal or formal, should give the employee sufficient time to state their case. In some circumstances, simply giving the employee the opportunity to air the grievance will take most of the heat out of it. Wherever possible, grievances should be dealt with informally first. This can often be achieved by mediation however, this can only be achieved provided you have consulted with everyone involved.

ACAS have some useful resources for managing grievances. Additionally, ACAS have produced a Discipline and Grievance at Work guide for employers. This guide is the minimum an employer should follow when handling such issues within the workplace. Together these resources will help you to identify a grievance and deal with it fairly and consistently.

Complaints

In some situations, employees can raise a complaint and these can be resolved fairly quickly without raising a formal complaint which would then follow the grievance policy and procedure. The employee may not wish to raise a formal grievance however it should be addressed promptly and would hopefully be quick to resolve with an open conversation. 

It is important that, even if an informal complaint is raised, they are still taken seriously. This is important to both address the reason for the complaint and give the employee confidence that the issue has been dealt with. Dealing with informal complaints promplty and effectively should also mean that formal grievances are less likely to be raised later down the line. 

More information on dealing with informal complaints can be found on the Acas page here. 

Next: Exit and offboarding