Learn How to Craft an Employee Warning Letter with UBS

When you are running a business, you have to deal with numerous people at the workplace.

• Misconduct.
• Violation of Work.
• Arriving late at the office.
• Poor performance.
• Violation of company policies, and more.

All the above issues are frequently seen in the workplace by HR Managers or employers.

What to do in such situations? You can ignore the employee’s wrongdoings once, twice, or thrice. What after that?

How would you deal with the employees who are frequently doing such misconduct even after several verbal warnings are given? This is where an employee warning letter comes in. UBS HR Toolkit offers you a readymade employee warning letter format that you can just download, modify, and send to your employee. Easy and Quick!!

So, let’s discuss the warning letter in brief in this blog. 

What is a employee Warning Letter?

Issuing a warning letter to employees is a common HR practice. However, what is it?

Certain employee lifecycles call for issuing warnings to employees for various ill aspects of their work tenure. Be it poor performance, dishonesty, excessive absenteeism, violating the office rules, or any other misconduct that is deemed unacceptable by the company; issuing a employee warning letter is the best thing an HR could do.

A employee  warning letter is a formal document issued by HR or management to record the misconduct, disciplinary issue, or poor performance of an employee. This letter can also help set expectations for future behavior and predecessor to the termination.

Types of employee Warning Letters

There can be several reasons to issue warning letters to employees:

1. Poor Performance

• Failure to meet the minimum set standards of the position.
• If an employee fails to meet the job requirements when under a probation period.

2. Disrespectful Behavior

• Unacceptable behavior towards a coworker, company official, customer, or supervisor.

3. Insubordination

• When an employee intentionally refuses to follow the direction of the supervisor or any other company authority.
• Getting involved in an argument with the supervisor, manager, or company heads.

4. Gossiping

• Spreading rumors or talking about the private matters of co-workers or other employees.

5. Sexual Harassment

• Making unwanted physical contact with a coworker, client, visitor, vendor, superior, or subordinate, or using explicit or abusive words.

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6. Excessive Absenteeism or Tardiness

• Days off without any prior approval or information.

7. Hygiene

• Excessive perfume/cologne
• Poor Hygiene
• Not properly groomed

8. Dress Code Violation

• Not following the proper dress code

9. Misinterpretation of Qualifications 

• Exaggerating your qualifications in your resume or during an interview to get a job.

10. Misconduct

• An intentional act 
• An act that conveys an idea of wrong intentions. 

The level of severity ranges from criminal actions like theft of company property to using the internet inappropriately.

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11. Violates drugs and alcohol, health & safety, or confidential policies

• If an employee fails to follow work practices or safety procedures.
• Discussing or releasing the company’s confidential information.
• Coming to the workplace under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Failing to secure information.

12. Imposes danger to the staff or threatens any employee

• Possession of weapon.
• Destroying company or personal property.
• Indulging in a fight with a coworker, manager, company official, or a customer.
• Threatening colleagues or any company official.

Things to Keep in Mind While Writing a employee Warning Letter

• Language and Tone

Start writing the letter using a professional tone and following a formal way of writing that stresses the seriousness of the situation. However, just make sure that your words do not intimidate the employee. Because, at the end of the day, your goal is to bring the necessary changes in the employee’s behavior and not to frighten him/her. 

• Structure

The structure of the warning letter format is very important. The recommended way of crafting a warning letter would be as follows:

• Date of warning
• Name and address of the person issuing the warning letter(usually written on the company’s letterhead)
• Subject
• Employee Name
• Section briefing the details of the violation
• Give suitable reasons why this misconduct/situation is considered a violation of the company’s policy.
• Mention the disciplinary actions that would be taken by the company.
• Your signature

• Content

Write to the point. Avoid writing long sentences or sentences that do not reiterate what’s written earlier. Shorter letters are more impactful. Without bringing too many emotions into it, get right to the details. Remember to add the date to ensure credibility.

• Proofread

To avoid any conflicts later due to minor errors, always proofread the letter before handing it over to the employee. Ensure that the letter is being sent to the right person with the correct details. There is no room for any mistakes.

• Acknowledgement

Once you have delivered the letter, next you need to confirm with the employee that he/she has received the same. For acknowledging the receipt of the letter, ask the employee to sign the letter. 

Get access to a standard warning letter format for free at UBS HR Toolkit having a diverse HR documents library to reduce the workload of HRs.

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What are the Benefits of Sending a employee Warning Letter?

There are a few benefits of issuing a warning letter to your employee:

• Ensure team members follow the procedure – Employees can learn when they are doing appropriately and when they are not by receiving violation notices.
• Ensures fairness for all staff – You can foster justice by sending warning letters to every employee who disobeys rules, regardless of their position.
• Allows the management to document employee issues – You can keep track of how issues are resolved at work by sending letters that employees must sign and return.
• Offer an opportunity to correct the problems – You can talk to the staff about a problem before it gets worse thanks to infraction notices.

Guidelines for Drafting a employee Warning Letter

Discuss the issue with the employee before drafting the warning letter. Set up a time and place for the conversation by email; it should take place in private, without the involvement of other employees, at your office, the supervisor’s office, or a conference room.

1. Consistently use the company letterhead when writing the employee  warning letter.
2. Keep a copy of the employee warning letter for your company’s records.
3. Write down the key ideas on the warning letter’s notes.
4. Keep your message brief and direct.
5. Clearly state the justification for writing a employee warning letter in the situation to prevent misunderstandings.
6. Despite the letter’s hostile nature, keep it in a polite tone.

Conclusion

Issuing Warning letters to the employees who indulged in any kind of misconduct or performance issues in the company is very important. This helps you motivate your employees to perform better at work. If you are facing difficulty in writing a letter, you can download the editable employee warning letter format from UBS HR Toolkit.

UBS HRMS Software offers an HR Toolkit that contains all the necessary HR documents that can help the HRs reduce their workload. Get in touch to know more.