Performance, conduct and discipline

Managing employee performance and conduct is an important, and often challenging, management function. If done effectively, not only does it assist managers to get the best out of their employees, it also reduces the employer's risk in the event of an unfair dismissal claim.

In order to manage performance and conduct effectively, an employer should have appropriate performance review and disciplinary frameworks in place and apply them consistently. Line managers should also receive comprehensive training on how to deal with these issues.

This topic considers the legal and practical issues involved in dealing with:

  1. managing performance

  2. performance review meetings

  3. appraisals

  4. managing conduct

  5. disciplinary processes and procedures

  6. the application and requirements of the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, and the consequences of failure to comply with it

Managing performance

An appropriate performance framework will include the following key elements:

  1. clear communication of expected performance standards to employees

  2. investigation of the reasons that an employee is not meeting expected standards (starting with a frank, detailed conversation with the employee about situation)

  3. the possibility of disciplinary

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Latest Employment News

Employment weekly highlights—23 October 2025

This edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) a revised draft regulation amending the list of bodies to which permitted disclosures can be made under section 17 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, (2) a further draft regulation replacing VPA 2024, s 17 in its entirety, to allow a victim of criminal conduct (or a person who reasonably believes they are a victim) to make a disclosure to anyone (including family, friends, employers and journalists), for any purpose, (3) EAT decisions highlighting the need for clarity when a disciplinary process is initiated during notice period and providing a reminder that a debarred respondent should generally be able to participate in a remedy hearing, (4) news that the DBT has ‘named and shamed’ 491 companies for failing to pay the national minimum wage, (5) a joint submission by the Trans Advocacy and Complaints Collective and the Trans Exile Network to the Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, asking it to reopen enforcement of ECHR judgments in Goodwin v UK and Grant v UK, (6) a letter from the EHRC to the Minister for Women and Equalities, urging her to approve the updated Code of Practice for services etc without further delay, (7) a letter from the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, to the Chairs of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and of the Women and Equalities Committee outlining concerns about the current climate for trans people in the UK, (8) a planned employment tribunal outage on 11 November 2025, (9) a new playbook for a pro-client, company-to-company consultancy agreement, (10) dates for your diary, and (11) other news items of interest to employment practitioners.

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