In your last 2-Minute Trainer, we addressed the basics of progressive corrective coaching (PCC) and explained why it’s the most important documentation in your office, after your employee handbook. Now, it’s time to take it to the next level. Many of our members use corrective coaching more sporadically than they should, or only use it with a few employees they consider risky or troublesome.
Corrective Action: Create a Record of Your Employment Decisions
Corrective action a great management tool and and a way to record legitimate employment decisions. If you use PCC occasionally, or worse, only with employees you fear might make claims against you, you won’t reap its benefits. In fact, using PCC selectively can actually start to look like the discrimination you are trying to avoid. How do you make PCC work for you?
The answer? Create a system for recording your corrective actions and be consistent. CEDR will guide you and your management team toward developing an effective method of recording performance.
Equality and Consistency from the Beginning
For PCC to be an effective management tool and to protect you legally, you need to implement it consistently and equally with all of your employees, from your newest hire to your own management team. When employees know that you treat all employees and all performance issues the same way, they are more receptive to coaching and less likely to take it personally. They are more likely to focus on how they can correct the behavior, rather than why they’ve been targeted. Finally, don’t wait until performance gets bad enough for a written warning to create a record! Even verbal warnings should be documented.
Effectively Recording Employee Performance
- Create a log for each employee. Performance logs don’t need to be complicated. They can simply be a sheet of paper kept in the employee’s personnel folder. The key is establishing a system you will use regularly either on the computer or in physical folder.
- Set a regular time for recording. Set a time to record performance issues on a regular basis, no less than once a week. Go through each employee you supervise. This will help you be consistent and uniform.
- Include the date and your initials. This helps complete the evidentiary record and will help you identify patterns in performance.
- Be fair but brief. Include observations, not assumptions or opinions, unless you state that it is your opinion. Keep out comments that may indicated bias or reference an employee’s age, sex, race, disability, or marital status. For example, don’t say, “Katie’s work is suffering ever since she starting having morning sickness.” Instead, say, “Katie seems lackluster in communication with patients and has been late on 2 mornings.”
- Be specific. For example, don’t say, “Jane was great today.” Instead, say, “Jane scheduled 3 new patients today!” Instead of, “Tom is being a jerk lately”, try, “Tom rolled his eyes during our morning huddle and complained when I asked him to help out at the front desk.”
- Include positive and negative behaviors. This will help you when it’s time to do performance evaluations because you won’t have to rely on your memory. Include any response or follow up you communicated to the employee (i.e. “I told Jane I expected her to be on time every day from now on!” “Tom mumbled an expletive under his breath as he walked away.”) For more serious performance issues requiring a written corrective action notice, go ahead and prepare it in advance, and schedule the coaching session. Remember, as a Solution Center Member, you can call or email us for help writing the notice and receive guidance on any particular situation that arises.
Okay, now you have passed the advanced class on PCC! Great Work! Now, go have a productive, harmonious, and lawsuit-free day!