Document, Document, Document!

When it comes to employee relations issues, my favorite phrase is “document, document, document.” No matter how big or small, good or bad, most interactions with an employee, or manager, should be notated in some way. This does not have to be a formal process; it is merely for your personal records. Notice I said employee or manager… there is value in documenting from all parties, though I will be focusing on this from a manager’s perspective for now.

There are two methods that I would suggest for this informal data collection. First, and probably the easiest, is to email yourself a quick note of what happened. Try to do this as close to the interaction as possible. This provides a time/date stamp of when it happened, and the best time to make the notes is while you still remember the details. Here’s how I format them:

Subject: MM/DD/YYYY – Employee Name – Reason (e.g. Late for Shift)

Body of Message: Observed Employee A arriving to the office at 7:53 AM. Shift begins at 7:00 AM. Spoke with employee immediately to determine cause of tardiness. Employee stated they had a flat tire and there was no cell service to call in to notify Employer that they’d be late.

Once you’ve sent the email, drop it in a separate folder with the employee’s name. By formatting the subject line with date, name, and reason, you can easily search or sort your email to determine if there is a pattern anywhere. If there are five Late for Shift entries in a month, you’ve got specific data to move forward to a verbal or written warning, depending on your progressive disciplinary policy. I’ll go deeper into progressive discipline in a later blog.

The second method I suggest using is Microsoft OneNote, or similar, product. It’s one of those programs that most people don’t realize is already part of their Windows OS. OneNote allows you to create multiple pages, and each page can have sub-pages. Keep one high-level tab called Employee Relations, and then break it down by each employee. Again, you can date each record and conduct searches.

Don’t forget to note the good behavior, too. This way you can get a well-rounded picture of the employee over time. Let’s be honest, many organizations are still do the dreaded annual evaluations. Without documentation, managers can’t remember all the things the employee did over the last 12 months, and therefore the evaluation tends to reflect only the last two to three months of performance. All employees tend to do better right before their evaluations, so you may end of with a folder of good evaluations, which can work against you later.

The other benefit of documentation is that if/when the time comes to terminate a toxic employee, or promote a rock star, you have the ammunition to do so. I can’t tell you how many times a manager has come to me that wants to fire someone. When I ask why, I discover they have never spoken to the employee about the poor behavior, nor have they documented it. That’s basically saying that it never happened. If all you have is anecdotal stories about their performance, how can the termination or promotion be supported? This can open a can of worms for discrimination cases. Consistent documentation will support all your decisions.

~Monica