Documentation is not just for performance issues!

Management is hard. It takes time, thoughtfulness, and most of all, consistency. Your team is watching and noticing how your actions reflect your words. And they’re noticing what you do and don’t do. 

One underappreciated area of consistency is documentation. BORING, I know. But SO important. Consistent documentation of 1-1 supervision meetings allows you to have a record of positive feedback for your employees, ensure that decisions are clear and track follow-up tasks. And, if you have the unfortunate need to document performance issues, it allows you to do so as part of your regular way of operating. If you’re noticing a performance issue and only then begin to document, you run the risk of not treating everyone equally and singling out that one employee, instead of treating everyone the same through your documentation process.

Here’s a great resource that details best practices for documentation. Unfortunately, it only focuses on documenting performance issues, but the same principles apply to documenting great work as well–which you should absolutely do! https://community.pepperdine.edu/hr/content/supervisor-guide-to-documentation-quick-guide.pdf

Does documenting 1-1 meetings take 10-15 minutes out of your day to do? Yes. Will it save you hours in the future if you…can’t remember a decision that was agreed upon, need to gather positive feedback for a performance review, or…need to deal with a pattern of performance issues in a timely manner…YES. 

Happy writing!

If you have templates or effective documentation procedures, please share them by contacting us below!