Employee Documentation

As business leaders or human resource managers, documenting employee performance is critical for the health and development of successful companies. Why is it so important to document, document, document?  And how should this be done?  Read on to find out the reasons why businesses should follow good documentation strategies as well as what some of those best practices look like.

It is important to document employee issues for several reasons including: protecting the company, maintaining records for the future managers and for the protection of the employee. Documenting employee issues will protect the company in the future should the employee file a lawsuit claiming discrimination or other legal matter. Documentation will also prevent any new managers from having to start from scratch. Documentation can give insight into issues and conflicts as well as how those issues were resolved. All that documentation also protects and helps the employee as well. In all fairness employees need to be informed when there is an issue so they can make corrective action or add their input about the situation. 

Proper documentation should include the following items:

• a description of the events or situation
• a definition of the policy that was violated
• a review of any previous issues with the employee and how that was resolved
• designate a mediator or neutral person to discuss the issue with
• indicate what changes need to be made and a timeline
• signatures of all people involved
• comments or input from all parties

The documentation should be a thorough as possible and include differing points of view as well as the final resolution.

Categorised in: Blog, employee issues