Disciplinary action

If you are dissatisfied with the actions or attitude of a team member, you should consider taking disciplinary action.

The aim of the disciplinary action should be an improvement in the team member's actions or attitude, although dismissal may indeed be an outcome in serious cases.

The organisation may have a disciplinary procedure which can be used. Generally this will include the following stages.

Informal

You should take up the matter with the team member informally, making clear the concerns you have but also listening to their side of the story. You should make a note of your discussion.

It should be possible to resolve the vast majority of minor problems informally in this way.

Formal

If there is no improvement, you should write formally to the team member:

referring to your previous discussions,
detailing your concerns
inviting the team member to a meeting with you.
informing the team member that they can be accompanied by someone of their choice.

After the meeting, you should write to the team member giving your decision. This could range from no further action, through written warning, and possibly to dismissal in cases of serious misconduct.
If the outcome is a written warning, this should clearly state:

the improvement required,
the date by which this improvement is required,
the consequences of failing to improve,
how the team member can appeal against the decision.

If the team member fails to improve or change within the specified period, you should follow steps 1 – 3 above again although the written warning may be a final warning (but check under the applicable labour laws, how many warnings are required). The outcome might include a demotion or similar.
If the team member still fails to improve or change within the period specified in the final warning, you should consider dismissing them.

Risks

You may feel that the above procedure is unnecessarily long and complicated during an emergency. There are however two powerful arguments against cutting corners:

It may be unfair to the team member concerned;
If the team member appeals successfully to a labour tribunal or similar, you may well spend far more time and energy defending your actions than you would have spent following the procedure, and certainly failing to follow the procedure will damage your case.

Equally dangerous is taking no action at all. You can not afford to have poorly performing or dishonest team members and if there is no record of informal or formal steps being taken against them, it will be all the more difficult to take action later.