DOCUMENTING DISCIPLINE

Your supervisors managers should be using a documentation system -- formal or informal -- for all kinds of management decisions, from performance appraisals, discipline, raises, promotions and terminations. Key attributes you should insist on:

Accuracy -- goes hand in hand with immediacy. Memory is a shaky defense, so notes should follow right on heels of what's being noted. That makes it much harder for an employee to cast doubt on a manager's motives if the written explanation came right after the action, with no intervening events. You get an added plus in case you need a record of what happened down the line after someone leaves the company.

Believability -- when outsiders judge your side of a story, detailed and contemporaneous observations add authenticity to your defense. The fresher the documentation, the greater the credibility. Hang your hat on facts, not impressions, to reflect objectivity.

Agreement -- if both sides agree to what happened, it's much tougher later for one side to change their claim or impeach the other's testimony. Good strategy: Get employees involved in the documentation process. For example, have both employee and manager summarize results of meeting and compare notes. Did the message get across, and was it the right message?

To keep your supervisors and managers doing their documentation correctly, here are a few guidelines to give them:

• Make documentation a daily habit, part of the regular routine, not an intermittent occurrence

• Keep a calendar, journal or notebook or a special WP file on a computer

• Summarize notes to spot trends as they develop

• Adopt a balanced stance, noting both positive and negative actions, applauding extra work effort as well as criticizing missed deadlines

• Seek  and maintain information from different sources, not only personal observations but third-party contributions

• Date everything and NEVER back-date anything

TWO ESSENTIAL RULES that top management must enforce consistently:

• Any failure to document disciplinary actions (however minor) is a serious breach of a major operating policy and;

• All managers and supervisors must adhere to the theory that:

If it is NOT written down, it never happened!