Documentation Excuses that Cost Employers

“I don’t have time” and/or “It’s not that big of a deal” are excuses that cost employers in the long run.

Have you found yourself in any of the following situations? 

Situation A: You find yourself considering letting an employee go due to poor performance and/or behavior. You haven’t formally addressed their performance issues with them, but surely they know they haven’t been performing up to company standards. You’re ready to terminate their employment today OR maybe you decide to wait until the end of the week because you’re too busy to terminate them today.  Come Thursday or maybe even next Monday, you finally terminate the employee.  

Major Mistakes:

• Employee wasn’t counseled on issues as they happened.
• Failed to address the performance / behavior issues with the employee before deciding to terminate their employment.
• Zero documentation exists on the employee regarding their poor performance. 
• What are the possible results from the mistakes? 

1. Terminated employee had no idea that they were going to be terminated and react poorly.
2. Terminated employee could file suit for wrongful termination because they were never formally addressed about the issues and ZERO documentation exists.
3. Terminated employee may file for unemployment benefits and will likely win because employee wasn’t counseled at least 2 -3 times and documentation doesn’t exist. Employer may end up having to pay their unemployment benefits.    

Situation B: You find yourself at the end of your rope with an employee after you’ve tried and tried to provide them with tools to be successful, but they’re just not performing up to the company’s standards. Maybe it’s due to their poor behavior, insubordination, unreliability or even a combination of many factors. You’ve verbally counseled/warned the employee about needing to step up but you never thought it was necessary to document the counsels/warnings because the issues were too small. Now the "small issues"  have added up to be a consistent problem so you’re now ready to terminate their employment.

Major Mistakes:

• Employee was counseled as the issues happened but the counsels/warnings were not documented.  

What are the possible results from the mistakes?

1. Terminated employee could file for unemployment and win because you can’t provide proof of the counsels/warnings even though you and the employee know they occurred. Termed employee could deny ever being counseled and would win unemployment.
2. Terminated employee could file suit for wrongful termination claiming that they were never counseled because you have no proof to support valid reason/s for termination.