Q. I have many employees whose performance I must document, but my write-ups are frequently delayed by days and I frequently lose important details. Are there things I can do to improve my recall?
A. If you can’t write documentation right away or must delay it for hours or days, your memory will fade. There are two solutions. One option is to memorize this suggested five-question outline. With each incident, go through the questions mentally. This may help to jog your recall more effectively later. The other option is to write down the answers to the questions quickly and retain them to assist you later. Suggested outline: 1) What happened? 2) How did you respond? 3) How did the employee respond/react? 4) What was the effect of #1 on productivity? 5) What was concluded at the time of the incident? This procedure should not take more than 30-40 seconds, but even a simple mental rehearsal will improve your recall and make documentation better when you finally get to it.
Q. I keep struggling with documentation. When an employee is slow, appears tired, and acts sad, I call it “depressed.” It seems more to the point and descriptive. As a result, my documentation has been criticized. Not using labels is difficult. Can BJC EAP help me?
A. An important part of employee assistance work is helping supervisors learn the skills of documentation. Documentation can be tricky because you must convey what you see and hear but omit what you feel and conclude. This takes practice because it is tempting to focus on other factors that are subjective and emotional. The key is to avoid drawing conclusions about personal problems, stating how you feel about the employee’s behavior, conveying diagnostic impressions or filling your documentation with drama. These things sabotage the usefulness of your documentation for administrative purposes. To improve your documentation, consider whether it describes what is measurable or observable. Depression (a medical term to avoid using in documentation) can’t be “seen,” but slow talking, days missed, lack of work progress, crying and sad looks are observable.
Q. I think I write excellent documentation and correction memos. It’s my primary way of communicating with employees regarding performance issues. Personal meetings are difficult to arrange and often must be rescheduled. Should I make a greater effort to meet, even if I feel that I am efficient already?
A. Effective documentation is an important skill for supervisors; however, good communication is an even more important skill to master. When you discover problems with employees, your most important goal is to resolve them. It’s a common mistake among supervisors to remain at a distance from employees, send emails and documents, and call that communication. You can discuss problems this way, but solving them requires much more. A performance problem is a discrepancy between what you want from your employee and what you get. Typically, there are many issues associated with performance discrepancies that written communication will not uncover. These include employee attitudes, skills, interference from others, organizational issues and ineffective teamwork. Rolling up your sleeves and processing (talking about) issues can help improve productivity. Your challenge is to resist the temptation to communicate primarily within a digital world.