Initials Employee Disciplinary Report Made Easy

Signature employee disciplinary report

[Music] documentation is one of the most effective tools for managing employee performance behavioral issues and reducing legal risks in any situation of employee performance or discipline we must be poised to think about right and then give well-crafted documentation to the employee let's explore three critical rules of disciplinary documentation documentation can improve performance reduce the risk of employee lawsuits and provide powerful evidence to help an employer defend against future claims it's quite important to understand the benefits of documentation documentation shapes expectations we're coaching alone can be ineffective documentation shows an employee their chance to improve creating a fair work environment and if the employee doesn't take the opportunity documentation is proof that the employer tried to provide the tools and resources for the employee to succeed and as evidence that a termination decision was not arbitrary despite these impressive benefits employers frequently neglect documentation sometimes this happens because they do not understand or appreciate the importance of documentation sometimes the employer thinks documentation is simply too complicated and other times the employer considers documentation too time-consuming documentation can be simple and quick if employers and managers follow these three rules of disciplinary documentation just do it know your audience and tell the story rule 1 just do it the biggest problem for many employers is they simply do not document so our first rule is also our simplest employers need to document there are 5 critical reasons that employers need to document first documentation provides an opportunity for the employee to improve second documentation shapes employee expectations third documentation also decreases litigation and forth juries expect documentation and fifth and finally documentation establishes legitimate business reasons for action so our first reason is that documentation provides an opportunity for the employee to improve at the core of performance management is communication of employers expectations however many employers erroneously rely on oral warnings and coaching but it's hard to deliver bad news to employees and subsequently people managers universally water down the message in delivery and the employee listening will filter the message missing parts and miss hearing others finally neither person will remember the message and overtime will reconstruct what was said by filling in the blanks documentation overcomes these challenges through a carefully crafted written message the employee can read and is less likely to misunderstand and more able to recall the message through documentation the employee has the best opportunity to improve in the end the goal is to help employees succeed the better the communication the better of the chances of improved performance our second recent document it shapes employees expectations an employee who has not been warmed in writing is more likely to be surprised when terminated and a surprised employee is more likely to sue why because of expectations most employees assume they're doing well they believe that no news is good news if an employer terminates an employee who'd never been warned of performance problems or as only warned verbally is far more likely to be surprised and feel angry and mistreated the employee is also more likely to assume that there must have been some nefarious reason for the termination and therefore the employee is more likely to consult with an a lawyer or file a charge of discrimination reason number three to document it decreases litigation documentation decreases litigation for at least two reasons first documentation shapes employees expectations and subsequently reduces the surprised anger and perception of unfairness of termination second if the employee consider suing documentation provides evidence that makes the employee's case weaker and therefore less attractive to a plaintiff's lawyer the documentation may persuade the plaintiff's lawyer that the termination was for legitimate business reasons and may decide to not pursue the case even if the lawyer takes the case the documentation may affect the lawyers evaluation of the case meaning the lawyer may be less aggressive or settle more readily that brings us to our fourth reason to document juries expected employers often fear that juries may be more likely to sympathize with an employee this fear can be well-founded especially if the employer has failed to document 61% of jurors say that employers need to be sent a message 74% of jurors think that an employee should be provided fair warning before termination and 90% of jurors said that the employer is negligent if it does not properly document performance problems thus an employer that has to explain its actions to a jury will have an uphill battle if they've failed the document and warned the employee appropriately and finally our fifth and final reason to document documentation establishes legitimate business reasons for action virtually every wrongful termination lawsuit boils down to an employee claiming that they were fired for some illegal reason there's nothing mysterious about wrongful termination lawsuits the employee will claim the termination was for some illegal reason such as discrimination or whistleblowing and the employer will claim that the employee was instead fired for lawful reasons such as bad behavior poor performance or reduction in force the employer needs evidence to support their position documentation that defines the problem and the associated impacts to the organization establishes this legitimate business reason for employment action now on to rule to know your audience disciplinary documentation has two audiences most employers focus on and write for only one audience the employee well the employee is the primary audience employers often fail to recognize that there are writing for a large and equally sometimes more important secondary audience agencies lawyers judges and juries because the secondary audience plays such an important role the employer should write employee documentation for the secondary audience not for just the employee writing for the secondary audience is different from writing for the employee because the secondary audience is not familiar with the situation or the employers business the employers documentation must overcome this unfamiliarity in order to preside the secondary audience by first explaining the problem in the impact although the employee may be familiar with what happened the secondary audience is not the documentation should factually describe what happened the problem and why it matters to the organization the impact and second avoiding jargon again the employer may understand internal jargon but the secondary audience will not jargon will make documentation more difficult for the secondary audience to understand and therefore less persuasive for example an employer writing only for the employee might document as last week you failed to fill out our form a1 any further paperwork errors will result in disciplined up to and including termination by contrast an employer writing for the secondary audience will explain the problem describe the impact and avoid jargon as follows as you know here at ABC we manufacture life-saving medical devices that are implanted into the bodies of human patients to help them fight and survive potentially deadly diseases your job is a quality insurance inspector is to inspect each lot of devices before shipment and then record the results of your inspection on a form for may one you have been trained on each step of this process and have even attended a course on inspection documentation two weeks ago last week you failed to complete the required inspection form a1 on a shipment of medical devices as a result we have no record that the devices were inspected meaning that we do not know if you inspected them and if they are safe when we asked you about this you said you were pretty sure that you had inspected the devices and you think you just forgot to fill out the required inspection form we are unwilling to risk the patient's health and safety based on your recollection of the inspection as a result we promptly recalled the entire shipment fortunately we were able to recall the 10 devices before they were implanted into patients bodies even though the recall was successful it had to be reported to government regulators the company negative publicity and was costly in time consuming any further performance or behavior issues including but not limited to failing to follow procedures or fill out required paperwork will result in further discipline up to and including termination finally rule 3 tell the story the most important rule of documentation is telling the story factually describing what happened and why it matters to tell your story and documentation follow these three guidelines first find the facts second paint a word picture and third don't forget the punchline first rule of telling the story find the facts storytelling requires the employer to learn the facts workplace investigations produce the chance of acting an incorrect or incomplete information well people often think of investigations is large disruptive and costly many investigations consists simply of interviewing witnesses with first-hand knowledge of what happened basic workplace investigations require the employer talked to these witnesses to learn the facts and then give the accused the opportunity to tell their side of the story our second storytelling guideline paint a word picture to effectively document workplace issues tell a story that paints a picture with words painting a word picture involves factually describing the events so the secondary audience can picture what happened and form their own opinions and conclusions about the employees behavior since at least 70% of the brain is devoted to interpreting and understanding visual images it's worth tapping into the part of the mind when you can people are persuaded by visual images and accordingly employers should paint a word picture to persuade the primary and secondary audience when painting your word picture avoid using labels adjectives and conclusions think about this example a customer's complaint about an employee the employer might be tempted to resort to labels and conclusions and write something like this you disregarded our customer and displayed a bad attitude the description does little to persuade or educate and the labels may provoke the employee or may be used against the employer instead the employer should describe the facts so the reader can visualize what happened and draw his or her own conclusions for example yesterday morning the president of ABC our largest customer called to tell me that you called one of their employees an idiot and hung up on them I met with you immediately to share the complaint and give you the chance to respond you told me the individual requested a 10% discount on all orders and that you lost your temper called the individual an idiot and then hung up the phone on them you said you feel terrible about your behavior and that you tried to call the individual to apologize this example simply in factually describes what happened it paints a word picture of what happened calling the customers employee an idiot the employers fairness giving the respondent a chance to tell their side of the story and the employees response admitting to an acknowledging inappropriate behavior and our third guideline of telling a story don't forget the punch line documentation should conclude with a punch line an explanation of positional consequences if the problems continue at the same time the employer should preserve flexibility to allow options as to the next step the punch line alerts employees to the seriousness of the problem while protecting the employers flexibility to respond to future issues here's an example of that punch line you must make immediate and sustained improvement failure to do so or further performance or disciplinary issues will result in further action up to and including termination now go and use these three rules to create great disciplinary documentation [Music] you