Ask the expert: Suspending an employee

An employee has been suspended due to mistakes made, but was not informed of these errors until the meeting at which he was suspended. Should another course of action have been taken? Esther Smith and Matthew Whelan advise.

The question:

We have recently suspended one of our employees due to mistakes they have made over the last couple of months. An appraisal meeting was scheduled and held with the employee; and one of my HR colleagues attended (the employee was not aware HR were going to be present), where the employee was duly suspended.

I was away when this all happened, and my issue is that the errors had not previously been brought to the employee's attention. The first he knew about it was when he attended the appraisal meeting. No PDP had been put in place. There have been no financial losses. The employee is often left on his own due to staff shortages and his line manager is frequently away on business.