The world of business management can be really stressful sometimes, especially when having to deal with disciplinary action and writing a verbal warning for an employee. Thankfully some tools can help on this mission.

Creating employee write-up forms can be a great way to deal with poor job performance or any other written warning purpose. This write-up form can be done for any kind of business, whether you are a small business or a big company.

This article will teach you how to create an employee handbook to help the HR department with the employee’s behavior and written warnings. Be sure to follow each step carefully for the best results for your write-up forms and create an optimized document that will truly fit your needs and expectations.

The disciplinary action form, also called an employee write-up form, is a document to advertise an employee’s unacceptable behavior. The reasons for the verbal warning can go from poor performance to any other cause that the organization may find suitable as inappropriate behavior.

The document typically comes in the form of warning letters with detailed information about what occurred. These employee write-ups are indispensable tools for keeping the workspace healthy and running in the best way possible.

There are tons of reasons why adopting these employee write-ups can be an excellent decision for your business and its environment. One of the primary uses of these write-up forms is to help the employee’s supervisor find the best conduct for dealing with work problems, especially when the team member already has previous warnings.

It can help in deciding the best course of action and how to do effective corrective feedback. The employee write-up form also directly impacts the safety procedures of your business and company policy regarding bad behavior. Moreover, the write-up template is indispensable for quality job performance regarding all company sections.

This is why these employee write-ups must be carefully planned and contain all vital information regarding employee feedback and witness statements for future reference. Everything can impact the decisions and results of your disciplinary action forms.

It is essential to understand you can’t always use an employee write-up form. It is a serious document usually used as the last resource when something happens.

If the situation is not severely serious, the manager or supervisor should talk to the employee in question. When the problem regarding poor performance or bad behavior is not recurrent, there is no need for a written form.

Using written warnings as the first resource in these cases is not a good practice and can be seen as unfair treatment by the employee. A write-up insubordination form must only be used if a past disciplinary action was not respected.

There are several reasons why employees might receive a written warning. Some of the most common reasons are:

• Poor Performance

• Misconduct

• Excessive Electronic Communication

• Attendance

• Insubordination

• Breaking Safety Procedure Protocols

• Substandard Work

Be sure to give verbal warnings before landing an employee write-up form. Otherwise, the company can be sued by the employee for unfair treatment, leading to severe legal actions.

Now that you know what a write-up template is and when to use it, it is time to start creating your own disciplinary action document. Be sure to follow each step carefully to avoid problems with the document and guarantee the best results.

The document must be clear and optimized from the worker's statement to why it occurred. This way, you can decide the best course of action to follow.

Here are the most important details you must feature in your employee write-up form:

Employee Information

The first thing you want to add to your write-up template is the field for the employee name, job title, and today’s date. It is crucial that whoever reads the document can instantly identify to whom it is destined and when it was filled.

This kind of information is always featured at the top of your write-up form. This will make the document clearer and more optimized for reading.

Purpose of the Write-Up Form

This field is destined specifically for the reason the employee is being notified. This section of the write-up form can be done in items or a blank space for writing the violations committed.

It is recommended that businesses use the second option since listing all the possible reasons would take a lot of space from the template. Moreover, writing the reason also makes your document more optimized, dismissing the need to look for the marked reason.

Description of the Violation

This field goes right below the notification reason and is a complement to it. Here you will describe what happened and where the action took place. This way, your employee can clearly understand why he is receiving the write-up form.

Along with this information, you can also add the date when the violation occurred and write up the name of who is filling out the employee write-up form. The supervisor position and signature are optional features we highly recommend including in case of legal action.

Employee Statement

The employee will use this field to explain the reason for the misconduct. The supervisor must collect this to understand the reasons behind the team member’s behavior and decide the best disciplinary actions based on this information, such as psychological help.

It is an essential part of the document that can also serve as proof depending on the case. It is usually added right after the description of the violation.

Disciplinary Action

Just like in the purpose of the employee write-up form, this part of the document can be made as a list or blank space for writing up. This field is for writing the decision made by the company and a description of corrective actions to take by the employee.

The decision on what actions to take and the punishment for the actions must be made considering all aspects of your employee write-up document. Everything will have an impact, from the witnesses’ statement to the number of previous warnings.

There are many tools for creating an employee write-up template, each with its own set of tools. We highly recommend using Microsoft Word for creating your documents.

Word has one of the best tool sets available in the entire market and is also an industry standard. This way, you don’t need to buy specialized software for each business task.

If you don’t have a Microsoft Office activation key, you can buy Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global at RoyalCDKeys for a considerably lower price. This way, you can save money and still have access to all the tools to make perfect write-ups for your business.

If you don’t want to create a write-up template from scratch – no problem. Here are some write-up documents that you can download and edit using Microsoft Word to fit your needs better:

Template #1

Employee warning write-up. Suitable for any kind of business. Uses a list layout for the violations.

Get this template

Template #2

Disciplinary write-up form. Ideal for cases with detailed employee statements.

Get this template

Template #3

Complete disciplinary action form. Ideal when a detailed description is needed for the case.

Get this template

Template #4

University write-up template. It is indicated for academic environments.

Get this template

Template #5

Simple action form. Perfect for any nature and size of business.

Get this template

There is no doubt that write-ups are indispensable documents when an incident occurs. A lack of these documents can be a headache for business owners and supervisors.

Having a clear and well-structured document is indispensable to avoid legal rights problems and set expectations of how the employees must behave.

Don’t forget that verbal communication is your first resort before landing a warning decision. This will help to create a better environment for the employees and help them better understand company policies that must be followed.

It is also essential that the employee agrees with the document. Without signing, the document may not have legal validity.

Now that you know everything you need about write-ups, it is time to start creating your own template. Be sure to double-check every piece of information before giving it to the person.

This will guarantee that your business will have a better working environment with all the support needed from all your employees. A good environment is the key to better performance and results as a team.