This article is about a better disciplinary policy for companies. The reason I am bringing this up, is because most of these multi-million dollar defense companies that put security contractors out in these war zones, have absolutely terrible disciplinary policies. Their leaders out in the field have their hands tied, and often are unable to be effective in keeping control of their troops and maintaining order on the contract. It seems that most contracts have no middle ground when it comes to discipline. You either do well, or you are fired and sent home, and then replaced by someone else. Or they don’t do anything at all about poor performing contractors. Pffft. I believe my system is more economical, more effective for maintaining control, and provides a better way of doing business.
So this is what I think the companies should set up. It is purely my opinion and based on my experiences as a contractor, former Marine, and former Smokejumper. It is also based on my management experience in all three occupations.
The first step is for the company to develop the policies and rules they think are important, and put it in a ‘handy dandy’ or pocket handbook that will be issued to all contractors of the company. A handy dandy is just a hand book, and that is what we called them in the jumpers. The Rangers have a similar handbook, as do many of the military branches. The smokejumper ones had all sorts of good info in them, and they had a calender and various forms to keep good notes on or track expenses with.
This handbook should be the size that fits in the cargo pocket of a pair of 5.11 pants. It should also be laminated so that sweat will not tear it apart too much. You can even make pouches for these things, so guys can keep them protected. Or they just buy something cool to put it into. The design of it should at least be able to last six months, and until a new issued handy dandy came out. In the jumpers, we got new ones issued every year. If we lost it or it was damaged, we would just get a new one issued.
So what would be in the handy dandy? Well definitely put the company mission statement in there and all and any company FAQs. Travel, Per Diem, Calenders, Pay Scales, Chain of Command, Phone Numbers, Travel Agents, etc. Don’t forget the basic mission essentials, nine line and medical stuff, RUF, ROE’s, SOFA’s, UCMJ, etc. It should be a very handy guide for the contractor to use, and because of it’s size, that individual could take it anywhere. I could also see a mobile version that the contractor could download for their iPhone.
One of the most important elements of the handy dandy is the disciplinary policy. Guys and gals must know what will happen to them, if they screw up. Better yet, the punishment must fit the crime. It must also be fair and consistent. Everyone must know the rules, and know exactly the consequences, and the leaders must believe in those policies and have the courage to enforce those rules.
There should not be any favoritism, and everything should be geared towards giving the company and the leader enforcing those rules, absolute legitimacy in their enforcement of policies. Meaning, if the leader and the company said you screwed up, and it is clear as day based on company policy that you screwed up, then you should totally expect to be punished. And to me, that punishment should be built upon the three strikes rule.
The first strike should be a verbal warning. Do not do this again, because of this policy or rule. The second strike should be to withhold a day’s pay. Nothing sucks like working for free. The third strike should be termination.
Now of course there should be some offenses that jump straight to the second strike or termination, and that is fine. But it must be in the policy of the company, and everyone must know that policy and agree to it. There is no other way, and you just can’t make up the rules along the way.
Finally, if the company is not keeping track of contractor performance, then they are in the wrong. The company should have at least two evaluations done on a contractor and three if possible. I could see more, but the three evaluations fits well with a pre-contract, middle-contract and exit interview system of evaluations.
The first evaluation with a contractor, should be one in which the company policies are explained and any questions answered as to what is expected. Then the evaluation should be signed, and put into a file. That is how we did it in the smokejumpers, and this is nothing new for contractors, because we sign all sorts of stuff–to include a contract.
The mid-contract evaluation should be the one that covers performance. A company could have several of these evaluations over the course of a contract, but seeing how many of today’s contracts are kind of short, this would probably be the most common. The point is, the contractor should know how they are doing, and any disciplinary problems that came up could be talked about at this point. Or if they kicked ass, that could be talked about as well. The contractor should know where they stand, and they should know what areas they could improve in. The leader giving the evaluation should also be open to suggestions from that contractor. These sessions should be feedback gold for everyone involved.
The exit interview is the final cherry on top, and should be a vital part of a company’s contractor development program. This is where you identify the losers and the winners. A company should keep this evaluation on the contractor within their files for a long time (seven to ten years I would say), because you never know if that contractor might leave, and then want to come back several years later. This is where a company can make offers to the guys that really performed, and try to keep them around. A company should also be able to search their database of former employees, and read that last exit interview to see if that individual is someone they want to bring on again. Just imagine if all the companies started doing this?
This simple act of doing exit interviews, and keeping that information around to access, could protect your company and other companies from hiring the dorks and the misfits that keep screwing up this industry. If a company calls another company about a certain contractor during a reference check, then that company could pull up this last exit interview and totally have documented proof of performance. No questions, no hearsay, no guessing or straining to remember anything. That is the kind of thing that could of stopped the hiring of guys like Fitzsimmons, or prevented the recycling of poor contractors within the industry.
Now a company guy reading this is probably asking, how do we save money with this? Well the big one that will save you money, is preventing turnovers. That and the withholding of pay under the second strike.
The second strike option is a great tool to motivate contractors. It costs too much money to fire a guy and fly them back home. Instead, you should try to reform them by implementing a policy that keeps them on site, yet still punishes them. You take a man’s pay for a day, and now the company just made a couple hundred dollars. If they screw up again on that specific rule, then fire them. But remember, when you fire someone, that means you have to find someone new, train them up in your little spin up course, fly them all the way over again, and then indoctrinate them into what is required for the contract. If your system of discipline does not reform them, then they are tossed out. But until then, you should be using a system that keeps them around and hammers home what is acceptable and what isn’t.
So that is it. Develop the company policy, distribute the policy to everyone in the form of a book or download, explain the policy to each individual and answer any questions about it, keep good records and maintain evaluations on everyone, be fair and consistent with discipline, use the three strikes principle in your disciplinary policies, and maintain records on contractors well after they are gone.
The intent of this post is to also emphasize how important it is to give your leaders out in the field, the tools necessary to manage their folks and keep good order on a contract. If you want to avoid incidents like the Kabul Fiasco, or prevent a Fitzsimmons from working in the industry, or minimizing turn over, then these are some of the things you need to think about. –Matt