Supplemental materials for LEAP 2025 session Documentation Essentials and Pitfalls: The Art of HR Record-Keeping
It happens to every manager: They sit down to prepare a staff member’s review and realize they can remember what the person has done only for the past few weeks. Or they let a single incident (good or bad) color their assessment.
Advise your organization’s managers never to rely on memory to evaluate an employee’s performance. Instead, create a simple recording system for them to use. Such performance logs don’t need to be complicated or sophisticated—a sheet of paper in a folder or a file on their computers will do. (Be sure it’s kept secure to ensure confidentiality.)
Note: A court will quickly dismiss a wrongful-termination lawsuit if performance logs clearly demonstrate a history of performance problems.
8 tips to capture the right info
Each employee should have an individual performance file. Include a copy of the employee’s job description, job application and résumé.
Advise supervisors to follow these steps when recording performance:
1. Include positive and negative behaviors. Recording only negative incidents will unfairly bias your evaluation. Make a point to note instances of satisfactory or outstanding performances, too. One way to ensure balanced reporting: Regularly update employee performance logs, instead of waiting for a specific incident to occur.
2. Date each entry. Noting times, dates and days of the week may help to identify performance patterns and problems that may cause them.
3. Write observations, not assumptions. Be careful about the language you use—your log could become evidence in court. Comments should focus only on behavior you directly observe. Don’t make assumptions about why the behavior occurred or judgments about an employee’s character.
4. Be specific. Example of poor documentation: “Employee was late three times last month.” Better: “30 minutes late on Feb. 5; cited traffic. 45 minutes late on Feb. 9; cited over-sleeping. Hour late on Feb. 23; cited car problems.”
5. Don’t use biased language. A good rule of thumb: Any statement that would be inappropriate in conversation is also inappropriate in an employee log. That includes references to an employee’s age, sex, race, disability, religion or sexual orientation.
6. Be brief, but complete. Use specific examples, not general comments. Instead of saying, “Ben’s work was excellent,” say, “Ben has reduced the number of data-entry errors to less than one per 450 records.”
7. Track trends. Note patterns and flag prior incidents of repeated behavior. Bring your observations to the employee’s attention only after you’ve defined a specific problem.
8. Be consistent. Don’t comment about one person’s behavior if you ignore the same behavior in other employees.
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