To ensure that employee documentation is effective and legally defensible, employers should follow these eight best practices: Be clear. Stick to the facts. Keep it professional. Underscore expectations. Set a deadline for improvement. Talk face to face. Explain the consequences. Get the employee's signature.
Avoid trying to interpret the employee's behavior. State the employee's specific behavior and actions, not your opinion or interpretation of it. In documentation, be sure to provide an accurate record of the conversation. Stick with the facts and write down just what you said and what the employee said.
Measuring behaviours for performance Taking time to regularly review the mastery of expected behaviours ensures positive behaviours are affirmed which builds on performance improvement. Consider setting challenges aligned to the expected behaviours and discussing them in weekly or monthly one on one meetings.
Focus on Behavior, Not the Person Describe specific behaviors or actions, not personal judgments. Clearly outline expectations for improvement. State consequences of not meeting expectations. Set clear, achievable benchmarks for the employee.
Focus on what happened, who was involved, and the context. Avoid Jargon: Use clear and simple language understandable by all readers. Date and Time: Note when the incident occurred. Location: Specify where the behavior took place (eg, patient room, waiting area).
Whenever you hire a new employee, you'll need to collect some key information, including: Personal details: Name, address, employee contact information, and emergency contact details. Employment information: Job title, department, start date, and salary.
Documents should be kept in a secure facility, document management system (DMS), or in cloud storage with restricted access to respect employee data privacy. Many employers now use electronic recordkeeping to save space, eliminate unnecessary environmental waste, and to save time when searching for a specific document.
The main documents to file include general information (name, address, phone number); hiring forms (application, resume, job description); official employee agreements (union contracts, non-compete agreements); compensation or salary data; performance evaluations; and post-employment information (termination letter, ...
An employee file, or personnel record, is a group of documents that contain all relevant information about an employee's time in your business, from their job application to their resignation letter.
How to organize personnel files Determine which documents to store. Review company policy, federal law and state regulations to learn which documents to include in a personnel file. Choose a filing method. Format your documents. Learn who can access the files. Create a file retention policy. Update the files as needed.