Disciplining employees is required in the workplace to ensure that you maximize productivity and efficiency. As a result, the business will continue to grow and you can bring out the potential of everyone as well as encourage great teamwork. Your style of management and employee discipline can determine the success or failure of the whole company.

1. Every employee is motivated by the same rewards

Bosses fail to realize that people have different triggers to work harder or stay competitive in the workplace. A study published at the Iowa State University revealed that workers may be motivated by internal or external factors. Management should provide a combination of these to increase efficiency.

2. Negative discipline works

The traditional way of disciplining employees is to provide sanctions for misbehaviour or lack of productivity. Although some businesses are successful with the approach, managers cannot expect to use the approach for the long term without straining employer-employee relationships.

3. Providing pure rewards

On the contrary, some businesses believe that positive reinforcement will solely suffice to prevent bad behaviour and poor performance in the office. In some instances, pure reward schemes can spoil employees since they do not feel accountable for failures or underperformance.

4. Immediate expectations

Many managers expect very fast results and think that skills and performance remain consistent among employees from the moment they start working. In another study conducted by the Research Foundation of State University of New York, progressive discipline is a better approach which involves indicating specific objectives to be accomplished by workers within a specific period of time. This allows employees to gauge their individual performance and determine whether they fared well in a given schedule.

5. Equal treatment for all

Managers should spend more time knowing the abilities and characteristics of every person under their supervision. Imposing the same rules and expectations for every employee or generalizing the approach may create the wrong impression that one or more employees are underperforming, when in fact, they only require specific objectives and rules to follow.

Maintaining open communication with employees as well as understanding their needs and strengths will help boost performance and justify disciplinary measures.