PIHRA Scope - Fall 2008 - (Page 20) HR CONCEPTS continued her department. The list will vary between supervisors, but it will most likely look something like this: • Attendance • Quality • Teamwork • Getting things done on time In most cases, the supervisor’s first impressions will represent the key issues that he or she needs to document. It does not mean that other things will not need to be documented from time to time. It does mean that the list represents the things that make the biggest difference to an employee’s success. The supervisor must keep track of his or her efforts to help an employee to successfully perform in each of these areas. He or she must also keep track of an employee’s efforts and missteps for each of them. An HR professional may want to add items to the list like corporate policies, safety or ethics. KEEP TRACK OF THE KEY EVENTS Arming a supervisor with a list of what is important is not enough. When a typical supervisor thinks about creating documentation, he or she tends to think about documenting what an employee did wrong. Documenting what an employee did wrong is not enough. It paints an incomplete picture. Documentation must also show that the supervisor supervised correctly. Each supervisor needs a second list that shows the typical key events that need to be documented. It is a list of the types of events that surround an employee’s job performance. The list includes items such as: • Training • Performance expectations • Performance events (i.e., missed deadlines, poor quality, etc.) • Rule violations (i.e., tardiness, failure to wear safety glasses, etc.) • Performance coaching • Performance reviews This list should be developed by HR and provided to each supervisor. It should be included in supervisory training. Notice that four of the six items on this list are things that supervisors do, not employees. In other words, a supervisor needs to understand that the key events he or she must document are not limited to what the employee did wrong. The supervisor must also be able to show that he or she trained the employee, established clear performance expectations and managed the performance of the employee on a consistent, timely and objective basis. need a trained court stenographer at her side at all times to pull it off. Most performance events occur on the run. The supervisor needs to write down enough information to recall the substance of the event. It does not usually need to be a novel. It does, however, need to be clear enough to help the supervisor to recall what occurred at a later date. For example: Incorrect: Joe was late Monday. Correct: Joe was late Monday, June 12, 2008. Spoke to Joe. Indicated car broke down. Apologized. Stated car was in for repairs and would make other arrangements to get to work on time. If the problem is corrected the note may not be used again. It may, however, provide an important example for the supervisor to use in a performance review to show that the supervisor addressed an issue and that the employee corrected it and continued to meet his or her performance expectations. If the problem continues, the supervisor will soon have a series of notes that paint a picture of a trend. The trend may lead to performance coaching, formal corrective action or a less-than-satisfactory performance review. The notes will show that the supervisor addressed the issue at an early stage and continued to monitor the employee’s progress. INTENT In too many cases, a supervisor’s documentation makes the supervisor look like a micro-manager who is intent on terminating the employee. The primary purpose of documentation is to create an opportunity for an employee to be successful. A supervisor that is creating an opportunity for an employee to be successful provides ongoing training. He or she sets and reinforces clear performance expectations and provides ongoing feedback on whether or not those expectations are being met. When an expectation is not met, the supervisor must address the issue at an early stage and collaborate with the employee to create an opportunity for the employee to get back on track. The supervisor’s notes, coaching conversations, corrective action memos and performance reviews must all reflect an intent and an effort on the part of the supervisor to create an opportunity for success. It is, after all, the main job of the supervisor. CONCLUSION It is not enough for an HR professional to tell a supervisor to “document.” A supervisor needs more than that. He or she needs to know what, how and why to document. An effective HR professional offers training, examples and support to help supervisors write and maintain effective documentation that creates an opportunity for employee success. ■ Mike Deblieux, SPHR, writes HR Concepts for the PIHRAScope to give you ideas and tools that bolster the basic HR skills you need to do your job effectively. Mike is Vice President of Willdan Management Services. He and his team offer workplace skill training for HR professionals, managers, supervisors and employees. Mike can be reached at 714-940-6375 or mdeblieux@willdan.com. Mike will be presenting a breakout session on Documenting Performance at the 51st Annual PIHRA Conference & Exhibition. MEMORY JOGGER Supervisors are often confused about how much to document. “Notepad Chelsea” was determined to document every word of every conversation. It is impossible. She would 20 PIHRAScope Fall 2008
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