In a Workplace Snippets feature article, Acas highlight that poor performance and poor behaviour can both be dealt with under disciplinary procedures, and the way managers should investigate, write to the employee, hold meetings and deal with appeals are the same. But managers should be aware that the actions taken at the first stage are not the same. In job performance issues, the employee should receive an improvement note explaining what needs to be done to bring standards up to an acceptable level within a certain timeframe. But for misconduct issues, an employee would initially get a first written warning. Acas confirm that organisations that have their own capability procedures may use it for dealing with performance problems. But the basic principles of fairness set out in the Discipline and grievance – Acas Code of Practice, should still be followed, albeit with appropriate adaptations.

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