- Stick to the facts and underline expectations.
- Emphasize behavior.
- Align records of past performance.
- Describe proof of misconduct.
- Identify and present consequences.
- Meet in person and get a signature.
Documenting Employee Performance – Part One – (Pre-write-up)
Why it’s important for you to document employee performance issues
Documenting performance-related issues is crucial because it preserves a written record of an employee’s tenure with the company, their interactions with their manager and coworkers, and their history of adhering to the rules outlined in the employee handbook. Overall, keeping track of employee performance enables you to conduct fair investigations and test employee behavior in the workplace from an unbiased perspective. In order to monitor a worker’s performance on the job, managers should maintain a file on them. This could be carried out weekly, monthly, or yearly.
What is an employee performance issue?
An employee’s failure to meet specific job requirements, such as attendance requirements, policy objectives, and standards to uphold an organization’s culture, is considered a performance issue. Performance issues are typically described by a worker’s manager in person, and then human resources records them. Human resources, however, may be in charge of notifying a worker about a performance issue and logging it.
How to document employee performance issues
Follow the steps below when documenting employee performance issues:
1. Stick to the facts and underline expectations
When you meet with a worker to discuss performance issues, you have the opportunity to present all relevant information. Depending on the seriousness of the performance issue, a manager or a member of the executive team may provide you with facts. In either case, move forward with gathering metrics to make plans for how you’ll explain the performance gap to the employee and how they can meet management’s expectations
Avoid using words like “never” or “always” in written reports, even if they have no history of carrying out a particular task. Instead, present a statistical analysis in your report using numbers. In this way, the worker can refute the report with evidence or set a goal for themselves to raise a statistic that will increase their output. When it comes to a one-on-one performance discussion with a worker, you want to be sure that you are the impartial party.
2. Emphasize behavior
3. Align records of past performance
If their past actions or performance violated any of the rules outlined in the employee handbook, explain how they did so and why a manager felt compelled to report it. An employee’s performance may be categorized as misconduct or poor performance if they violate any of the workplace conduct requirements, which are typically outlined in an employee handbook. Make sure to highlight in the employee handbook the requirement that the employee didn’t meet before printing and distributing copies of it.
It might be simpler for an employee to process this information if this is their first infraction of the employee handbook or if they haven’t been meeting a performance standard. Therefore, when putting employees on notice for their actions in writing, keep the preceding step in mind.
4. Describe proof of misconduct
To prove their actions, get information from the employees’ direct manager and written emails from their coworkers. You should have a thorough report to fully explain to an employee how information about their performance was gathered as well as the type of workplace misconduct that was engaged in.
5. Identify and present consequences
The above step enables you to choose the best disciplinary measure for the employee. Additionally, it explains why a worker isn’t performing to expectations or isn’t resolving a problem already in place. In general, try to establish a deadline for when an employee must satisfy predetermined standards in order to fulfill their role to the best of their ability.
6. Meet in person and obtain a signature
Meetings about performance and misconduct should always be in person. This gives you the chance to provide all pertinent information gleaned from the investigation, and the employee the chance to process, analyze, and ask pertinent questions about the information.
Have the employee sign a document to indicate that they have read and comprehended the documentation’s content after going over all the issues related to it. Additionally, let the worker know that by signing the document, they confirm that they spoke with the human resources office about their performance. Its not an agreement about all pieces of content gathered.
Employee performance issue document template
Here is a template to assist you in noting poor employee performance:
Performance review commenced by:
Meeting date:
Meeting place:
Start time:
End time:
Meeting attendees:
Meetings purpose:
Discussion points:
Action items:
Human resources signature:
Managers signature:
Employee signature:
Employee performance issues document example
Here is an illustration of how to complete such a document:
Theresa Martin, manager of human resources, opened the performance review meeting on Monday, October Meeting location: Traders Sales and Marketing Corporate Headquarters, 11563 Regis Place, San Francisco, CA 94105; start time: 3:05 p m. PST**End time: 4:05 p. m. Theresa Martin, manager of human resources, and Davis Martin, sales representative, were present at the meeting in PST.
*Meetings purpose: Failure to meet sales targets for Q3*
Discussion points:
Action items:
*HR signature: Theresa Martin, human resources manager*
*Managers signature: Matthew Hairston, sales manager*
*Employee signature: Davis Martin, sales representative*
FAQ
Why is documentation important for job performance issues?
Documentation demonstrates that performance-related issues were communicated to the employee in a clear and timely manner. The documentation provides a history of the employee’s performance advancement or regression over time.
How do you document your performance?
- Standardize the format. …
- Be flexible. …
- Highlight the performance indicators. …
- Highlight achievements. …
- Provide fair, objective and complete feedback. …
- Bring out the details. …
- Summarize the review with key outcomes. …
- Add supporting documents.
What are the key elements in the documentation process of an employee’s performance?
When there are issues with an employee’s performance, they may show up as decreased productivity, trouble prioritizing tasks, making mistakes on projects, or missing deadlines. The challenges associated with these performance issues are as diverse as your workforce.
