Documenting Conversations
EliVenk
6 Posts
I work for a small manufacturing company that has 50 employees. I would like to implement a consistant way for the supervisors/managers/ and myself to document ongoing situations that don't warrant an official write up.
For example: An employee asking for a raise, an employee showing signs of insubordination (but not to the extent of a write up), attitude problems, and also positive things - offering to help on a major project.
Even though we are a small company - when it comes time to annual review time I feel like a lot of this information gets lost or so much time has passed a supervisor may feel as though it is not relevant anymore, even though it is an annual review.
Any tips would be great!
Thanks!
Comments
For notes on non-disciplinary counseling sessions, investigation notes, and the like, you can maintain files on employees in the HR office, separate from their employee files. Depending on the specifics of the document, there are many reasons why these types of thigns shouldn't be in an employee file. It's typically a bad idea to have things in an employee file that you later want to say had no effect on an employee decision. It's also a good idea to keep track of all the smoke even if you never see a specific fire. For example, if you investigated an allegation of sexual harassment and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation, that allegation would, in and of itself, have no disciplinary effect on the accused. That doesn't mean you just throw the notes away and assume it never happened. It also means you don't want someone looking through that person's employee file taking that information into account when they are making an unrelated employment decision (e.g., promotion, termination). At some point, you may want to say that 3 allegations in 4 years by employees who didn't even know each other was enough: via con dios. Without the continuing record, you may not have known just how much smoke was accumulating.
For annual review, it is a good practice for supervisors to maintain a binder in a handy but securable location to note down significant achievements, barriers to success, skills acquired, attitude ups and downs and so forth so that they have a long term and continuing record of employee performance. Part of the idea is to prevent performance appraisal from being based on the argument the supervisor had with their subordinate the day before and get the supervisor to focus on performance over the whole time frame the appraisal is spposed to cover.
We'd be happy to share with you a copy of both an incident report form and a counseling form (for escalation of multiple incidents or serious infraction) that we’ve used since about 1999. Our employment lawyer has often praised us for thorough documentation when issues have arisen.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
One nice thing about them, too, is that we require the original signed incident report forms to be turned in to HR. This allows us to keep tabs on issues throughout the company and also as appropriate coach the supervisors / managers about better ways to handle issues and to ensure we are in compliance legally.
If you’d like a copy of our forms (since we can’t attach them to this post), please email me at johns@ceniehoff.com, and I can forward them to you. I work for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Sharon.
How are you able to "control" managers and have them complete the forms and return them to HR for record keeping? We have a hard enough time getting managers to complete status changes for salary increases. We have laid out clear guidelines for all documentation, including how HR must review before being presented to an employee, however we always get it after the employee has already signed.
[quote user="Medifast"] How are you able to "control" managers and have them complete the forms and return them to HR for record keeping? We have a hard enough time getting managers to complete status changes for salary increases. We have laid out clear guidelines for all documentation, including how HR must review before being presented to an employee, however we always get it after the employee has already signed.[/quote]
Cutting to the chase, HR's ability to perform its function is based on either business management buy-in to HR's role or HR's empowerment to act on its own.
TXHRGuy is absolutely right. As long as you have buy-in from top management (which in my mind goes hand in hand with having empowerment to act) then things will happen. If managers know that if they don't follow the procedures then, they themselves will get written up (and taken to task by top mgmt) then it is amazing how well things seem to work out.
I would do this. I would go to top mgmt and ask them if you can do a HR training session in the next staff meeting. Lay out for them the reasons why you want to do this. Think about these things to see if any apply:
You need to show mgmt why doing this training is important and that the steps you have outlined will save the company time, money and aggrevation. Get their buy in and then do the training. Then hold your mgrs feet to the fire. Make sure they follow the steps/procedures that you have outlined.