Documentation Skills for the Supervisor

Most supervisors avoid writing things down until they’re ready to fire someone. By then the file holds last year’s review, which calls the employee “a great team player,” and nothing since. When that employee files for unemployment or claims retaliation, the company has to explain a sudden termination with no paper trail.

EANE’s half-day documentation training for supervisors fixes that habit. Supervisors learn the steps of progressive discipline and practice writing warnings and performance notes on real workplace scenarios, so they leave able to write clear, factual notes.

What supervisors learn

By the end of the session, participants can:

• Explain why documentation matters. How good records support your policies, protect the organization in unemployment hearings and legal claims, and reinforce the behavior the organization expects.
• Run a fair, consistent disciplinary process. The steps of progressive discipline (coaching, verbal warning, written warning, final warning, termination), the pros and cons of following them strictly, and when serious misconduct justifies skipping steps.
• Write documentation that holds up. A simple formula for capturing the who, what, when, and how of a performance problem accurately, with facts instead of opinions.
• Apply it to real situations. Practice exercises and role play with the scenarios supervisors face most: attendance, attitude, missed deadlines, and conduct.
• Handle documentation around protected leave. For Massachusetts sessions, documentation and discipline in light of the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave law.

Personnel-file rules supervisors should know in New England

What a supervisor writes can end up in front of the employee sooner than a supervisor might expect. Each state handles personnel records differently:

• Massachusetts. Employers must notify an employee within 10 days of placing negative information, such as a written warning, in the personnel record. A supervisor’s “shadow file” of notes doesn’t escape the rule.
• Connecticut. Employers must give the employee a copy of any documented disciplinary action within one business day of imposing it.
• Rhode Island. Employees can inspect their personnel files on written request, and the law expressly includes written warnings.
• Maine and New Hampshire. Employees can review and copy their personnel files on request.
• Vermont. No general personnel-file access law for private employers, though records are still discoverable in litigation.

Leave adds another layer. In Massachusetts, discipline or termination during Paid Family and Medical Leave or within six months after it is presumed to be retaliation unless the employer can rebut it with clear and convincing evidence. Documentation written before the leave is the evidence an employer needs. We covered a $4.75 million example in the Wayfair case.

Bringing this course to your supervisors

In a private session, supervisors work with your own disciplinary forms, attendance policy, and scenarios from your workplace. We deliver private sessions live virtual or onsite anywhere in New England. Pair it with Performance Management or The Art of Feedback for a fuller picture of managing performance. Massachusetts employers with 100 or fewer employees may be able to cover the cost through the Workforce Training Fund Express Program.