For the most part employees come to work with the best intentions and want to do good work. However, there are those occssions (or various occasions) when an employee needs to be corrected in their behavior.

A question I get often is when talking to an employee about performance issues when should the conversation change from only talk to being documented on paper. I understand were this can get difficult.  Part of you is saying “I am treating this person as an adult by discussing the issues” and the other part is saying “This is taking a lot of time each day, I just want them to do their job”.  I get it. In theory we should be able to have a conversation with a person about their performance and it should improve – if not for you, for themselves and their career.

Unfortunately, as you may have learned along the way – it doesn’t always work that way. There is no magic formula as to when to stop “talking” and put it into writing. Here are a few guidelines to help you make the decision of when to switch:

• When following up on a conversation the employee states “I thought you meant something else”. I am assuming you were clear in your direction and the documentation can avoid confusion on your expectations.
• Their lack of performance is costing you money. This is actual money not just time – maybe you have had to refund a customer, pay more for product, ship items overnight, pay overtime for corrections, etc.
• After several conversations there is no notable improvement. The employee can tell you what needs to change, how to change and yet they don’t.

Once you have decided to put it in writing, keep it simple and follow these guidelines:

• Tell it like it is. Don’t use fancy words or words that may have a legal meaning (example: insubordination). Use everyday language and explain the situation.
• Be specific. The main reason talking doesn’t work is because we are too general when trying to correct a behavior.
• What should have happened. It is not enough to tell a person what went wrong, you also need to explain what should have happened and why.
• The employee provides the solution. Ask the employee how they plan to correct their behavior – this will increase the chances of better performance and creates employee buy-in to the solution.

Don’t get frustrated by the process, take the steps necessary and the employee should improve. If they don’t – well that’s another topic.