When you run an organization, school, factory, or any business where you have people reporting to you, then you will always have to stand on your toes to manage them. Managing people becomes the most challenging task if you don’t know that art. Either handling then too hard or leaving them free will lead to performance issues. Then how should one manage people? You can do it by following a few simple tips. Trust that nothing will become a rocket science until you know the right way.
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How to increase productivity? How to make an individual know his responsibility? How to deal with people during critical times? Above all questions read only one answer and yes you must exchange communication with them. If you fail to let them know your feedback, then you take not only your business to failure but your people too.
Next, question, how to talk to them? Orally spend a few minutes on a weekly basis to understand their concerns on the job. Why did they fail to perform? This will instill confidence in them to correct their mistakes if any. Few commit mistakes due to ignorance. Thus you need to have a moral responsibility to let them know their mistakes.
But, will that solve all problems with everyone? No, exceptional cases will continue to exist. How to work with such people?
The next step to oral communication comes to the written notice. We call it show cause notice. Here you will provide an opportunity to allow employees to explain their position. Why did they fail? What support do they require? How they can improve?
In the worst case, when that fails as well, then you have no other choice other than issuing a warning letter. Official communication on non-performance becomes a must legally before you dismiss any employee from duties.
In this article let us briefly explain to you about Warning letter for negligence of duty. Also, provide you with sample letters that you can copy-paste to warn any individual officially. Finally, we welcome you to download sample templates and edit them to issue to you the non-performing employees or an employee whose conduct remained bad for quite some time.
First things first, you must understand this letter. A letter that an employer gives in writing to warn an employee about his non-performance, carelessness, ignorance, misconduct or misbehavior on the job. Per employment law, no one has the right to terminate an employee from services without prior notice.
Practicing to issue a formal letter as a warning becomes a good company habit. Use all the components given below to complete your warning letter in a professional manner.
Date This date corresponds to the date at which you issue the letter.
Letter issuer – Mention the name, designation, and company address (department) of the person who will issue the letter. Details of a senior authority who issues letter to a junior employee for misconduct, or ignorance, etc.
Letter Recipient – The person who receives the warning. Name, role in the organization, department, and address.
Reason for the warning – Provide a one-liner before explaining why issuing this letter.
Action taken as part of warning – In this section mention details elaborately. First tell why you issue the warning, next tell your observation on the same for a particular period. This becomes mandatory to substantiate your actions against the employee. Then tell what will happen if the recipient fails to make necessary changes after reading the letter. Finally, provide timelines to measure the improvement.
Signature and Seal – Sign and mention the designation and attest using the company seal. Seal becomes optional if you provide the letter in a company letterhead.
Do you want to have sample letters and wordings about how to proceed with the warning letter?
Few letters will contain wordings as if the direct manager writes the letter. Sometimes the HR department will issue a warning and other times a skip-level manager can also give a warning. We have provided samples in all the formats for your reference.
Make note that you can shuffle details from the sample and make a unique letter as well.
Every topic given below will contain a brief description and when and where such warnings become effective followed by a sample writeup. We will only give the sample write up as the format remains the same as mentioned in the components section.
When an employee intentionally or unknowingly neglects his work, then the organization must notify him on the same. This letter might become a serious warning or simple warning depending on the situation and the impact the company received due to the employee’s negligence.
We wish to bring to your notice that you of late neglect work. You don’t seem to come to the office on time. Also, you leave early. These show that you neglect work and do not want to contribute to the company’s growth. This observation by your direct manager for the last month has made us write this letter to you. If this action continues, then we may have to take action against you. Treat this warning letter seriously and show improvement in the next 15 days.
Carelessness becomes a common culture in the workplace. Few do not even know that they perform carelessly. To that extent they become careless. Even though carelessness does not turn to sin, but the ill effect it creates on the job will lead to a loss in the business. Thus a strong warning letter issued will arrest this at the initial stage instead of allowing it to deep root.
Sample letter
You have continuously shown a careless attitude at work. This reflects even in the email you send. Your grammar has gone for a toss that you write to customers. This confirms that you fail to read your email before sending it. Also, you leave office documents in your workstation or in printer very carelessly. Last week the tender quote document which you left in the printer caused great tension to us. Fortunately, I checked it there before someone else noticed and hence saved you from the crisis. I warn you for the final time and look forward to your focus at the earliest to avoid any harsh decisions.
Irresponsibility may arise due to overconfidence. Yes, when one feels that they can handle any situation that makes them lose focus. Eventually, they don’t perform consistently. This may even happen due to gaining more experience. People may feel bored about doing the same work which once they did with so much care. The moment they feel this they stop double-checking due to their irresponsible attitude.
Here you go with a sample
I know you work for this company for the last 5 years. I hired you and found you responsible all these years. The recent past happenings made me write this letter to you. Due to overconfidence, you have stopped giving that final touch in your work. This irresponsible behavior of yours has brought loss to the company. You might have smartly blamed the system but I am personally aware that your irresponsibility caused this loss. Considering your position and experience I am not taking any action against you. But, I would like to bring this to your notice and provide you with an opportunity to correct your mistake. Treat this letter as a warning and take it in the right sense to correct your actions to avoid any repercussions.
Not knowing something becomes ignorance. Yes, every individual should gather skills as they work. They cannot stagnantly remain by not enhancing their skills. “Ignorance is bliss” might sound a good proverb but not at the cost of the business. Find an example warning letter given to an ignorant employee.
We have noticed that you don’t care to understand things in the office. Your ignorance has put the company in trouble many times. We thought you will learn from your mistakes. We spoke to you and warned you orally but no improvement. We give one last chance to correct this. If you feel you don’t have the capability, then let us know. But, if you ignore just out of carelessness, then take steps to correct. We will give you another last chance to prove by working on the next project. In case you don’t gather the required skills, then we promise you that we will take severe action against you.
After giving a couple of oral warnings, checked with the employee for the reason for negligence with show-cause notices and issued a warning letter as well, when the employee fails to take steps to correct, then issue a suspension letter.
How to write a suspension letter
We have noticed a dip in your performance on the job due to your negligence. To bring this to your notice your manager spoke to you and warned you orally. As a next step, we called you for a meeting and gave you a show cause notice to give you a chance to explain yourself. Later your super boss warned you with a written letter too. Finally, we have no other option than suspending you from the services for 2 weeks. Treat this period as the time given to you for correcting yourselves.
Vice President – HR
Following procedures become mandatory in every job and each company follows a set of processes. Even when one employee fails to understand the procedure, then it makes the entire project suffer. Everyone contributes some percentage for the growth of the organization. Therefore, failing to follow the procedures will lead to total damage.
We noticed that you complete the job on time. However, instead of giving you an appreciation letter we send you this warning letter. You may wonder, but the fact remains that you never follow the process of our organization. Following procedure alone takes the company to reach its goal. You may show us quick success, but we require you to follow the process and complete the work. Failing to consider this warning letter and not following the process might make us dismiss you from the system within a month.
Completing work has to happen correctly for growing the business and making money. One might have many reasons for not completing work, but the organization cannot buy them. Hence they issue a warning letter to the particular employee.
The project work which you failed to complete has brought loss to the company. I know that you worked hard. Thus I prevent the top management from terminating your services. However, we must answer for the losses. I have assured the management that you will perform well next time and complete the work ahead of time. To make it official I am sending this warning letter to you. Don’t feel dejected but work hard and smart to quickly complete your next assignment to prove yourself to the company. I have confidence in you.
Looking forward to see your performance in the near future.
This notice becomes a legal document given to an employee who did not work due to ignorance, negligence, carelessness, etc. This document will give a chance to the individual to explain themselves before warning them on their action.
The letter format will contain the following details
We would like to bring to your notice about your attitude in the job. You show arrogance to your peers and subordinates. Do let us know if you have any personal concerns making you behave harshly. Please update us about your situation and we can help you. But you need to stop passing harsh comments that hurt others. We consider your years of experience and provide a chance to explain yourself and seek help from us. Please contact us in person or in writing on or before 2 days from now to explain the reason behind your attitude. Failing to come back we might have to issue you a warning letter and take necessary actions.
Consider this notice as a chance to discuss with us your position and we can together resolve issues.
Principal in a school, college or university not only warns students but the teachers too. Bad behavior of teachers demolishes the student’s future and spoils school names as well. Therefore, the principal owns the school discipline.
Sample warning letter
I regret to inform that you seem to behave wrongly with girl students. You have a firm grip on subjects and hence I am not taking action against you immediately. But sending this warning letter as the character plays a crucial role for everyone. Especially a teacher like you should set a role model for the upcoming generation. Thus change your thought process against girl students. Provide them with equal opportunity in the laboratory to conduct practical experiments. Do not underestimate them and pass the wrong comments. Treat this warning letter seriously and correct yourself within a week’s time to prevent any disciplinary action against you. I will watch your activity from time to time until I gain confidence in you.
This letter provides details about why an individual neglected work. Thus in this, the sender and receiver will get swapped .here sender will become the recipient and vice versa. The person will explain his position in return to the warning letter.
Sample letter
I regret to have non-performed in the job. I am personally feeling pressurized as my dad went through surgery. It demands my presence at the hospital. However, I manage to come to work and that leads to distraction. I apologize for missing on details to complete the assigned job. I am aware that one should not carry personal problems to the office. But, this emotional situation pulls me down. I promise to you that I will become up after a week’s time. Requesting you to bear with me for the said duration. Having said that, I won’t continue to non-perform during that week but will focus to avoid any blunders I do during work.
Thanks for your understanding.
Address the employee name and designation and also mention the reason for issuing the warning. Mention the time period when the person neglected work. Explain the damages that he created due to that. Provide him with time to correct the said mistakes. Review his performance after that period.
How do you write a warning letter for misconduct?Misconduct needs a severe warning. Based on the behavior the letter should provide a serious warning. It cannot look like a normal warning letter. It has to contain strong words to prevent any further wrong behavior. Quote the law that talks about misconduct and let the employee know about the punishment too. Let them not treat this letter as a letter sent for formality. Bad behavior not just affects the business but brings down the morale of other employees. Hence exercise caution and draft a sensible warning letter.
How do you write a first warning letter?The first time issuing a warning letter to an individual need not look terrifying. You can always give rooms to change on the first occasion. Express your concern about the individual and tell them that you want to help. Do not make it very harsh as it is the first time. Warn subtlety and explain the consequences if the negligence continues. Constantly check the activity to see the improvement.
How do you issue a memo to the staff?We name it memo when you issue that to a group of employees in a specific project team or a department. The reminder sent to employees giving them sufficient time to correct forms a memo, the short form of a memorandum.
The format remains the same including the date, sender, receiver, seal, and signature. However, the main content will contain a few subdivisions as given below.
• First warn the team for a wrong action, negligence, or disrespect. The first letter you sent and document that. Mention that letter’s date and details.
• Second, document the action taken by the team to make necessary changes.
• Third, let them know what will happen if they fail to correct the mistakes in the mentioned duration.
• Finally, ask them to reach out to you for any support.
Feel free to download the free template to just type your wordings and use the format as it is to issue a memo in your organization.
In spite of trying hard to retain an employee at times, it becomes hard to stick on to. The top 5 reasons when you must dismiss an employee gets a listing down here. Let us know if we have missed any and we would love to include them as well.
• Dismissal means terminating and that leads to discontinuity of services of the particular employee from the company. You need to take due care before you execute such a decision. Double confirm here to make sure that your termination decision causes no harm legally on you or your business.
• You have the right to legally terminate an employee after witnessing no change in the activity. This becomes possible if you have given a show cause notice asking for justification followed by a warning letter. If the employee has not changed at these two instances, then you can no longer wait to terminate the employee from work.
• In the event of misbehavior with a coworker that makes the peer resign from the job, then the employer must immediately dismiss the person who misbehaved. The severity of the behavior has made the other person quit and thus the company must do justice by terminating the harm causer.
• When an individual carried out an illegal activity like sharing company information with a competitor for monetary benefits the company can straight away send him out of the job.
• In case the employee attempts to involve in activities like giving morphine drugs to coworkers and if the country law prohibits that then his termination should not get delayed. If failing to, then the whole company will pay a heavy penalty in front of the law.
• When the employee has cheated the company by submitting fake personal documents, then the company has the right to terminate his services.