Documentation in an employee's personnel file is important for the following reasons:
1. Celebrating successes.
2. Creating a history.
3. Protecting the employee and the organization.
4. Checking for understanding.
5. Road map toward improvement.
Document ion means a written notation or description of any action, activity, incident or event which helps the respective team member, their supervisor, and the organizational leadership understand the team member's work experiences, and helps all with decision making and support around the team member - in service to the mission and goals of the organization. Believe it or not, the way members of your organization document directly relates to the type of culture that is present in your organization.
Celebrating success: One of the main goals of documentation should be noting an individual's successes on the job. No one is motivated when the only things that are remembered about them are their mistakes. People are motivated by first feeling great about what they are doing well, and repeating those behaviors again to try to feeling of engagement in their work. Documenting the successes of an employee can be as simple as sending the employee an e-mail about something specific and meaningful you know about that they did really well, printing it, and putting it in their file. For example:
"Hello Jason. I understand that today you handled a difficult patient interaction with a calm, positive, and patient-centered approach. This type of interaction is not only a model for other members of the team, it is exactly the kind of patient-centered interaction which aligns with our mission. Thank you for your high quality service to our customer, and actions that show that you understand and believe in the work we are doing".
It is important that if supervisors keep their own personnel files, that they are sharing these comments with whoever is managing the permanent employee records in your organization. If you have a recognition program, it can be very effective to share e-mail's like this one with all of the members of your org. team.
Creating a history: It is valuable to build a story about an employee's experience in your organization. Not only does this help you reflect on individual team members themselves, this information can help an organization to learn about their overall approaches to it's team. If an employee suddenly leaves an organization for a different opportunity and there is no story documented about that employee's interactions, events, learning, etc. there may not be a way to piece together the reason they may have sought out an alternative. If a team member repeatedly asks for more training and doesn't receive it, this may be an indication of their feeling undervalued or ignored. Likewise, if a team member has repeated behaviors which are creating difficult interactions at work for example, it may be difficult to understand the whole picture without a written history (have there been interventions? have there been improvements? do improvements and lapses go in waves for this person?).
Leadership would benefit by measuring one element of leadership effectiveness by the level at which and the quality of the way they document interactions and activities of the team members they lead. Further, supervisors and managers are well served when they are coached by their supervisors/leadership on how to note and follow up on goals, solutions, and outcomes in writing and in conversation with the individuals they are supervising.
Protecting the employee and the organization: The primary purpose of documenting a team member's experience should not be to anticipate legal issues, but there are legal considerations when including documentation in a team member's file as the information in personnel files is "discoverable" should you be faced with a wrongful termination suit. The best way to avoid legal issues in documentation is to train your leadership teams to include the following in their writings:
It is beneficial for leadership to strike a balance in their writing, both protecting the team member as well as the organization. This is less likely to happen if the leader is emotionally charged or feeling pressure from leadership or other team members to take a specific action (such as discipline or termination). An unbiased, fact-based, solution/goal oriented document is the best practice.
Checking for Understanding: It is a good idea for the supervisor to enlist the help of an appropriate coach, perhaps their own supervisor or someone who is trusted to protect confidentiality and has a stake in the success of the event surrounding documentation. Another pair of eyes helps the supervisor or leader to make sure the message is understood, and that the above best practices for team member and organizational protection are included.
Individuals should never be left out of the documentation going into their personnel file. A conversation should always accompany any notes if your intention and goal is truly improvement and success based. An employee should not be surprised by what is in their personnel file.
Road map for Improvement and Success: In most cases, employees want to do a good job, feel engaged in their work, feel valued, and work toward something "bigger" than themselves. Sometimes, they just need the faith of their leadership, a road map to follow, and the space to do a good job in order to let their motivation shine. Most of today's successful, forward moving organizational leaders will agree that a positive rather than a punitive based organizational culture will serve all its members and stakeholders best. If you view documentation as a road map for improvement and eventually success, you will be providing your employees with skills that will last a lifetime. If they can SEE where they have come from, and where they are on the road to you will likely have a very strong and sustainable team where fear of conversations and records dissolves because fear has been replaced by trust. From a utility standpoint, if supervision changes hands, the new leader will have a better understanding of the individuals on their team if they are armed with good documentation. Training supervisors and leaders on how to create good team member documents creates sustainability of culture and stability for your team members.
Resources:
Following are links to some tools which may help supervisors and leaders with documentation:
Recognition from Leader for Excellence - Sample form
Recognition from Teammate for Excellence - Sample form