According to research, there’s a 12% chance an employee will file a lawsuit against your company
this year.And unless your company has several critical documents to defend its decisions, the lawsuit is all but guaranteed to end badly.
Luckily, employment attorney Robin Shea offers the following list of documentation must-haves that should be used any time a performance or disciplinary situation takes place.
Essential information
Pass this list along to all of your finance managers and supervisors:
- 1. the full names of everyone involved in the situation
- the exact dates, times and places
- a full explanation of the events (make it clear enough for an outsider to understand)
- clear reasoning for anything that might look askew
- a description of what was shared with the employee, such as disciplinary documents
- the relevant facts of what was said or done
- past infractions which include dates, times, places, etc.
- a clear description of the employee’s side of the story, and
- the consequences the company spelled out for any future performance/behavior issues.
Also, if a manager or supervisor happens to forget to document something the moment it happens, they should still do so after the fact.
As Shea reminds employers, as long as you’re honest about the date on which the info was generated, late documentation is still better than no documentation at all.