There are really two issues with staff that cause the most problems for Māori organisations.

  1. Poor performance and how to handle a performance improvement process; and
  2. How to handle a disciplinary process.

Māori organisations know when someone is not performing to the standards they want, but often do not know how to get them to that standard or what to do if they cannot get there.  We have easy to follow step by step guides on how to handle both of these issues. 

They set out how to raise the issue with the staff member, what to put in the letter, how to set up the first meeting, what you must say about support people and possible outcomes and how to handle each meeting and decision making steps along the way.

In addition to the written guides we also have short videos that take you through the steps in an easy to understand way. These are only about 4 minutes long, but are a great help to ensure you get the process right and do not cause personal grievances by botched processes when dealing with poor performance or discipline matters.  Get the process right and then concentrate on reaching a fair and reasonable decision, rather than wasting time fixing up the mess from a personal grievance brought about by missing important steps in the process.

Here are links to the videos:

How to handle a disciplinary process...

How to handle a performance improvement process...

How to handle long term sickness...

How to handle a redundancy process...

You can also find the full written guides on the same topics on our website at:

Employment Law Guides 

as well as lots of other free articles and guides for organisations and business owners.




Alan Knowsley
Māori Issues Lawyer
Wellington