Performance Management

Gather the following information:

• Employee information such as name, CWID and department name.
• The date and/or time the incident or policy violation(s) occurred.
• The place of the policy violation.
• Statements from witnesses to the policy violation.
• Statements from other parties involved.
• The employee's side of the story.
• Always consider the nature of the incident, the frequency of the violation, and the employee's overall work record before disciplinary action is taken.

• List the employee information.
• List the Issues and Policies that will be discussed in the corrective counseling conversation.
• Summarize the facts and events leading to the discussion from your fact-finding.
• Clearly state why the employee's behavior or performance is a concern to the work environment. Make sure your statements are clear and concise, non-punitive in tone, and constructive in approach.
• Develop an Action Plan with specific and measurable steps to improve employee performance.
  • Get the employees ideas for improvement.
  • Add your own ideas.
  • Set a follow-up date to check for progress in the Action Planning session.
  • Follow-up as agreed and as often as required.
• Follow-up Dates. It is important that managers inspect what is expected. By setting a follow-up date managers gain the opportunity to check for progress being made toward expected outcomes, hold those counseled with accountable for improvement and gain additional opportunities to coach progress.
• Be sure to get the employee's signature and date on written forms.

• Separate the facts from your personal feelings when conducting discipline.
• Make sure the conversation is held in a place of privacy and that you allow sufficient time for discussion.
• Extend the same courtesy to an employee as you would expect to be extended to you. Sometimes things are not what they appear to be. Your challenge as a manager dealing with disciplinary matters is to use your good judgment in determining why situations have occurred.
• Make sure you have a full grasp of the situation before you document disciplinary action or conduct a corrective counseling session. Knowing the whole story may not change that you discipline someone, but it may change your approach to a situation.
• Focus on behavior means to concentrate on a specific action the person has done or that you want him or her to do, rather than an individual's personality or attitude. A behavior is something you can see a person do or hear a person say. When you focus on personality or attitude instead of behavior, the person is likely to become defensive. When you focus on a specific behavior, the person will be able to understand what you want and why and feel less defensive about it.
  • Example of behavior: Your report is two days late.
  • Example of personality judgment: You are not very reliable about getting things done on time.
  • Identifying the outcome of a late report, helps to underscore your reasons for focusing on this behavior.
  • Saying, "Late reports cause my summary to be delayed and that backs up the whole system" explains the problems caused by that behavior.
• Always meet with the employee and provide opportunity for discussion and feedback