7 Responses

1. HI-Disciplinary Procedures
   Two options suggest themselves

   1, Our external trainer took us to a real life tribunal showing that this is what happens when a procedure fails and then staged a “mock trial” on site

   2.Waterstones have good employment law casebooks – in a nutshell they’re called – and which cite real cases

   Good luck

   Jennifer

2. Considering Options
   Hi Derek
   you might like to consider having a couple of people in to role play of a “live” complaint raising or conduct meeting with a pre set script and get the delegates to discuss how to deal with the case in small groups – action planning and solution generation. As an alternative, prior to the event, you might want to suggest that they volunteer to take notes and follow a live case within your organisation, I find this really useful for practical experience. Also, depending on budget and constraints, you could consider actors who do this for you and gives your delegates the opportunity to pause the action and steer the debate, questions etc. I have lots of case studies, however I am unable to share these with you, but would be happy to give some suggested cases to handle using your own procedures if you wish to contact me.
   Hope this helps
   Lesley

3. Ideas for disciplinary procedures
   Hi Derek. One exercise that worked particularly well for me in the past was giving the procedure to the group and asking them to physically ‘become’ the process. It created a whole new state for them to ‘study’ the information and of course it was delivered back by them in a high interactive way. I then had the group create a ‘test’ for each other from the procedures. Again they were ‘reading’ the processes without realising.

   One extra point that. all research indicates that the ‘state’ of the trainer has the biggest impact on the state of the group. If you can design something that gets you excited about the subject, you’re much more likely to get the learners excited about it.

   Feel free to drop me a line if you’d like some extra thoughts and ideas.

   Best regards,

   Richard Nugent

4. using role play
   I’ve used a role play scenario to do this training. I created a script whihc I present as minutes of the meeting and I and a collegue act it out (using different hats for differnt roles) using some almost familiar names from Whodunnits (Hercules Pearhead, Jane Marpool, etc) and followed the procedure through from receiving complaint to the end of the disciplinary process. The Script throws in one or two ‘red herrings’ to help participants realise the need to ask open questions and not to make assumptions. The script also contains copies of the letters required. This means that all participants have an example of how to manage the process.
   At the end of each stage, I get the participants to discuss any concerns or problems they have or ask any questions.
   This has worked very well. At the end of the session they all get a copy of the script and a handout of the procedure with an explanation of what happens at each stage.
   It’s good fun and participants really do seen to retain the information.

5. ideas for disciplinary procedures
   Derek,

   This is an incredibly interesting area. I love doing this course. I trawled through the HR files and found a whole load of notes from different cases which I then mish-mashed around to write case studies.

   I have case studies which can be dealt with at the informal stage, and then ones for each level of the ‘formal’ process. Delegates love the course and find it incredibly good to know they CAN challenge poor behaviour and poor performance and still remain both ethically and legally correct. I’ll mail you a couple of case studies if you like, but it may be better if you write ones that are realistic to your company.

   It probably helps if you have done a lot of disciplinaries yourself, if not, get a HR person who has to help. Delegates will have a million and one ‘what if’ questions for you.

   Also, I make it pre-course work that they have read through the procedures.

   best of luck,
   Rachel

6. Yes please Rachel
   Thanks for all your comments & ideas, they have been a great help.

   Rachel I would be keen to receive a copy of your case studies.

   Please email them to derek.hughes@wolverhampton.gov.uk

   Thanks,

7. Or why not…
   Hi Derek,

   I’ve taken some very well known cases and created ‘parts’ for them. I use these in a number of ways – some are just brief role play type parts, others have a great deal of information in them like case studies that have to be discussed, I also have created several versions of Disciplinary Consequences which particpants find very interesting to play with.

   I’ve found that in general if you apply Experiential and Accelerated Learning Techniques to any area of employment law or disciplinary learning people relate to it far better, as I also train with a lot of ‘stories’ and real life examples the whole approach is very different from the one that my law degree took place in.

   Best regards,

   Megan