Make Your CaseIf you terminated an employee for what you feel is misconduct, you can’t just make the claim and win the dispute—you’ve got to be able to prove it. That requires you to document behaviors and create written materials to serve as a benchmark of performance expectations.
Carlson says this is a fairly painless process if you have a proactive strategy of documentation. To help, she suggests diligently adhering to the following six tips:
1. Develop A Strong Employee Handbook
Employees need to know what their duties are and what the company expects from them, Carlson says. Shop operators should provide a handbook for every employee and have it signed in writing.
You can refer to the rules and policies in your handbook when fighting unemployment insurance claims, Carlson says. You can easily explain how the employee was terminated as a result of ignoring those policies.
2. Develop Standard Operating Procedures and Work Guidelines
Create documents that spell out work behaviors and processes you expect, Carlson says. For example, you might require every employee to wear a respirator in the paint booth, or to store chemicals in a certain way. Repeated violations of those processes can qualify as misconduct—as long as the employee knew about the required procedure.
Wynbelt says SOPs are critical to prove an employee’s pattern of ignoring the rules. Poor work behaviors can be seen as negligence, not misconduct, without clearly written policies.
3. Document disciplinary actions
It’s important to document all disciplinary action or counseling sessions held with employees. Document the date, time, topics of conversation and level of reprimand given, Wynbelt says. That shows proof that you attempted to correct the employee’s behavior before termination.
4. Document Employee performance evaluations
Include all performance evaluations conducted with the employee when disputing unemployment insurance claims, Carlson says. If an employee routinely scored low in certain categories, it shows you addressed the issue and tried to correct it.
5. Make employees aware of consequences
Employees need to be aware of the potential ramifications of their misconduct, Wynbelt says. Make that known during any disciplinary sessions. In addition, add a line to each of your company policies that states, “Failure to adhere to these policies could result in disciplinary action including termination.”
That gives you documentation that an employee was warned and knew about the consequence if the problem persisted, Carlson says. Then you can prove the employee was terminated due to misconduct in accordance with company policy.
6. Make a detailed report
Be thorough in your initial response to the state when notified about an unemployment insurance claim, Carlson says. Take time to detail the specific information and circumstances surrounding the employee’s termination. Also highlight the process you went through to make the final decision.