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There are a lot of small infractions that an employee may commit that are not warning worthy. However, a series of small infractions may lead to a cumulative problem. Therefore, it’s important to start documenting everything when things start to go funky with an employee. A raised voice in a meeting or snapping at a colleague in front of you—these are examples of issues that may be small if they only occur once. However, if they continue to occur, that pattern will need to be addressed. To address this properly, you’ll want to document everything that occurred. Although you are hoping for the best, you must prepare for the worst: if this employee’s behavior doesn’t improve. If that happens, you’ll want to have all of the examples of the issues spelled out.
When documenting infractions, even minor ones, include the following in your records.
- Date, time and location
- Situation (including background data about the circumstances)
- Who else was involved
- How you handled the situation (even if you decided to hold off from addressing it directly)
- What the employee’s response was to your addressing it
- Any other relevant information
Hopefully you’ll document the issue once and through your compassionate coaching, the employee will change her tune. However, if she doesn’t you’ll have a growing list to provide to HR if it’s time to end her employment.
How do you document infractions with staff members? Share with us in the comments below.