Setup Considerations: disciplinary policy

What this achieves

The disciplinary policy is the set of rules every case in its scope runs under: which consequences may be used at all, how much money a case can take, and what happens when the employee refuses or disputes. It is the safety rail around the ladders, and it is the thing to settle before a case is served on anyone.

Decision 1: which consequence types are allowed at all

Allowed consequence types is an allow-list. A type that is off here cannot be added to any ladder in this scope — the builder does not offer it. This is a deliberate order of operations: ban first, and the mistake becomes impossible rather than merely discouraged.

Option	Description
Warning	A recorded warning, at a level of Verbal, Written, or Final.
Monetary deduction	An amount, or a number of workdays, taken from pay.
Unpaid suspension	A number of days without pay.
Probation	A period of probation, in days.
Bonus ineligibility	A number of months during which the employee does not qualify for a reward.
Training requirement	Training to be completed, with a number of days to complete it in.
Custom	A consequence you name yourself.

Example: an entity that will never deduct pay through a disciplinary case turns Monetary deduction off here. Nobody can then build a ladder that takes money, whatever they intend.

Whether a given consequence is available to you as an employer is a legal question, not a product one. Decide this list with your own advisers, then set it here.

Decision 2: the deduction caps

Two caps exist, and they do different jobs.

Option	Description
Maximum per offense	The most a single case can take.
Maximum per month	The most all cases together can take from one employee in a month.

Each cap is expressed either as an Amount in a currency or as a number of Workdays, chosen with Mode. Left unset, the screen shows No cap.

The per-month cap is the one that matters most, because it is the only thing standing between an employee with several cases and a month with nothing left in it. Where a cap bites, the case records the reduced Final amount, a Cap note explaining it, and any Deferred remainder — so the reduction is visible rather than silent.

Example: a per-month cap at HC Corp UK Ltd means a second case against Tom Hargreaves in the same month is reduced to what remains under the cap, and the shortfall is recorded rather than dropped without trace.

Set both caps. A per-offense cap alone does not bound a month.

Decision 3: what a refusal does

If the employee refuses to acknowledge decides what a refusal means here.

Option	Description
Action stands (proceeds anyway)	The refusal is recorded and the consequence still applies.
Block (consequence is held)	The refusal is recorded and the consequence is held instead of applying.

Both are defensible and the product takes no view. What matters is that the employee is told which one you chose: the response screen tells them a refusal is formally recorded and that, where company policy is that the action stands, it will still proceed.

Example: HC Corp UK Ltd choosing Block (consequence is held) means a refusal stops a deduction and puts the case in front of a person. Choosing Action stands (proceeds anyway) means the deduction happens and the refusal sits on the record beside it.

Decision 4: whether a dispute holds the consequence

A dispute holds the consequence holds a disputed monetary consequence pending review.

This is the setting that decides whether disagreement is a pause or a note. With it on, an employee who disputes has the money withheld until someone looks; with it off, the money moves and the dispute is recorded alongside it.

Example: an HC Corp UK Ltd employee disputing a deduction sees the case say the consequence is held pending review of their dispute. With the setting off, they see it has taken effect and their dispute recorded.

There is no queue that chases a held consequence for you. Holding creates work for a person; decide who does it before you turn it on.

Decision 5: acknowledgement and approval

Two switches decide how much process a case has to pass through.

Option	Description
Acknowledgment required	The employee must acknowledge before consequences apply.
Approval required	Raised cases route through the approval workflow before they take effect.

Turning either off shortens the path to a consequence. Both exist so that an outcome rests on a sequence rather than one person’s decision, which is the whole argument for running discipline in a system at all.

Decision 6: whether the stage can be overridden

Allow stage override decides whether a person can move a case off the rung the ladder computed for it.

Option	Description
Off	Strictly mechanical. The stage is whatever the incident count and the reset window produce. Consistent, and unable to bend for a case that deserves it.
On	The computed stage can be replaced, and a justification is required when it is. The override and its justification are both recorded on the case.

Example: with it on at HC Corp UK Ltd, a case that mechanically lands on a final warning can be moved down a rung with a written reason, and the case shows what it was overridden from and why.

An override that is never justified in writing is the thing this setting exists to prevent. Turning it on is fine; turning it on without expecting the justification to be read is not.

Decision 7: the language of served letters

Letter language overrides the language of served letters. Left at Default (by jurisdiction), it follows the legal entity’s jurisdiction.

Leave it on the default unless you have a specific reason. The employee reads this document; the jurisdiction is usually the right guess at what they read it in.

Decision 8: tenant-wide or per legal entity

Policy has a Scope, the same as the catalog. A scope that has no policy of its own inherits the Tenant-wide default.

Set the tenant-wide default first, then override only the entities that genuinely differ. Every entity carrying its own copy of a policy nobody varies is a maintenance cost with no benefit.

What is expensive to change later

Decision	Cost of changing later
Removing a consequence type from the allow-list	Medium. Ladders that already use it need rebuilding; cases already resolved keep what they resolved with.
Lowering a cap	Low going forward, none retrospectively. Amounts already applied stand.
Refusal policy, once cases have been served	High. Two employees who refused under different settings got different outcomes, and the record has to explain that.
Turning acknowledgement or approval off	High. It removes a step from every subsequent case.
Turning stage override on	Medium. It is reversible, but overrides already applied stay on their cases.

What happens next

With the policy set, the ladder builder offers only the consequence types you allowed, so build or revise the violation catalog next. Any case raised afterwards runs under this policy from the moment it is submitted.