The Importance of Documentation in Human Resources

Documentation is the written and retained record of employment events. Documentation is made up of government and legally mandated elements, documents required by company policy and practice, documents suggested by best Human Resources practices, and formal and informal recordkeeping about employment events.

Documentation is a written record of an employee's actions, discussion, incidents of performance coaching, witnessed policy violations, disciplinary action, positive contributions, reward and recognition, investigations, failure to accomplish requirements and goals, performance evaluation, and more.

Documentation allows the employer or employee to preserve a written record of the happenings and discussions that occurred around a specific event. Documentation of the employment relationship provides a written record that may be necessary to support such actions as employee promotion, employee pay raises, and disciplinary action including employment termination.

Documentation about employees is generally both positive and negative, when necessity. It is factual and not judgmental. It describes events as they occur not the beholder's opinions and thoughts about the event.

Types of  Documentation

Policies, procedures, the employee handbook, and performance development plans are also forms of documentation that record expected employee behavior and workplace requirements to maintain an orderly, fair workplace in which employees know what is expected from them.

Documentation is also the written record of the statements of the accused, the accuser, and witnesses to hostile workplace events that involve employee misconduct such as sexual harassment.

Documentation may be formal and retained in the employee's personnel file. Employees are expected to sign this documentation to acknowledge that they have received a copy and have reviewed the contents. (The signature does not signify agreement with the statements in the documentation.)

This documentation also includes such permanent records as the signed employment application, written employment references, application materials such as resumes and cover letters, and background checks.

Documentation may also be informal as in a manager's record of his or her discussions with an employee over the course of a year. It is important that managers maintain this documentation on all of their reporting staff members; no employee should be singled out because of performance. (This could be construed as discrimination at a later date.)

Use of Documentation

Documentation of critical incidents, whether positive or negative, is also recommended so that managers have a record of employee performance spanning a period of time.

Documentation is used in other ways in organizations. These can include procedures, work instructions, and computer software instructions, to name a few, but for purposes of the Human Resources function, these are the common uses of documentation.

And, these are instructions about how to document appropriately.

Performance Documentation Samples

Documentation about an employee’s performance will allow you to discipline, terminate, or fairly  promote, reward and recognize employees. Without documentation, making a case for any of these actions is difficult - and potentially risky for the employer.

The employer must avoid any potential accusation about discriminatory treatment of employees. Legality aside, good employers want to create a work environment that is fair, consistent, and supportive of employee goals and career plans.

This environment is supported by the manager's professional documentation of employee performance - both laudatory behavior and actions in need of correction or improvement. Earlier, how to document was discussed in detail. These samples give you even more examples of appropriate documentation.

Documentation Samples

Wrong:

Mark is usually late for work. Mark misses too much work.

Right:

April 1: Mark called in sick and missed 8 hours of work.

April 4: Mark arrived at work at 10 a.m., two hours late from his scheduled start time.

April 6: Mark scheduled a doctor's appointment and then, stayed home to have a new furnace installed.

April 12: Mark called in sick and missed 8 hours of work.

Mary is unreliable. She hardly ever does what she committed to do.

Right:

May 2: Mary promised the first draft of the product proposal would be available for review at today’s weekly meeting. Mary did not produce a draft document as expected. Said she had been too busy and the people whose help she needed hadn’t gotten back with her.

Manager responded: What help had you needed? Information? Who has not gotten back to you and what did you need from them?

Carl and Michael needed to update Mary about their progress.

What is making you so busy that you didn’t have time to follow through on your commitment? Makes too many commitments with limited hours to fulfill them.

What can I do to help you?

When will you make the draft document available for review? 

These samples provide an overview of what effective documentation looks like versus documentation that is written incorrectly.

CONCLUSION

Generating and managing fair, accurate, and non-biased documentation of employee behavior and performance is one of the most important skills all supervisors need to develop. When supervisors and managers create even as much as handwritten notes, they’re creating potential litigation exhibits that could have significant consequences down the road.