What's my phone number again?

So, my previous post got me thinking about documentation.

When dealing with human resource matters the following three steps will help defend you from accusations of wrong-doing:

Documentation, Consistency, and Fair Treatment of employees.

I intend to discuss all three at some point, but for this post, I am going to focus on documentation.

Einstein implied that it would be foolish to memorize something that you can look up. Conversely, it is foolish not to document something you might not remember. You can't do an internet search to remember how you handled the last time someone asked off to watch their child graduate. If you want to look it up later, you have to create the document.

While the Greeks said it first, I cannot write Greek, so in Latin the term is nosce te ipsum, "Know Thyself." I know that in a year (or less), I will have no recollection of the specific steps I took relative to any employment action. To combat this, I write myself memos outlining the steps I took, to whom I spoke, and any other details that may be pertinent, including the logic behind my decisions.

It is kind of fun to review those memos. Often I am impressed by myself. More importantly, it has proven VERY useful. Most recently, my previous employer was sued for an employment action, but my paper trail provided sufficient evidence to prove there was no discrimination. In fact, my supervisor called me to thank me for doing such a thorough job with documentation.

Beyond writing myself memos, I always follow up in-person conversations with an email outlining my understanding of the tasks I need complete or the understanding reached during the conversation. I ask the recipient(s) of the email to respond back affirming their understanding or noting any necessary changes. This has saved me more than once, and I highly recommend the practice.

In my first position after college, I handled a lot of COBRA and State Continuation clients. Our company was owned by an insurance broker who gave his clients free COBRA and State Continuation service. We had a new client and were unsure of the total number of employees (which determines if COBRA or State Continuation applies). I emailed the insurance agent who was the lead on the account, and he responded that it was COBRA.

About five months later, the company had an employee who had a qualifying event. COBRA paperwork went out and the employee elected COBRA only to find out he was not eligible. State Continuation applied, and he had missed a deadline. Since the mistake was our fault, he was allowed to obtain continuation coverage, but I was in the hot seat. I was astounded that I had made the error and could not fathom why I would have done it.

I started reviewing my files for the client, hoping to understand why I had made the mistake, and came across the email I sent the agent. I forwarded the information to the President of my company and went from being a scapegoat to being championed for taking the right steps and documenting those steps. In this situation, I was lucky the email was still in my outlook folder.

The lesson was so profound that I immediately implemented my rule about email follow ups and documentation.

After that, any email exchange regarding a serious issue or in which I was seeking information became part of an electronic file on the topic. I saved the file on my desktop and backed it up on the server. One cannot be too safe with regard to documentation. Sometimes it just comes up missing.

Another example of having email save me was during an insurance renewal project. We were shopping for new brokers and a new third party administrator. I met with our Director of Accounting and was given my task list. I emailed her after our meeting, outlined the steps I was to take, and asked her to approve or correct any discrepancies between my understanding and hers.

She emailed back and approved my list I. About three weeks later, she called for an update, and I informed her where I stood. She began to berate me, questioning why I had not completed an additional series of tasks. Befuddled, I apologized. I began to doubt myself and question how I could have missed completing these tasks.

After I caught my breath, I remembered my "modus operandi" and reviewed the file. I could not find anything in my outlook inbox, as the email must have been archived. I went to my project file and found the email agreement. I forwarded it to the Director of Accounting, and she apologized.

I use these stories to illustrate how documentation has benefited me in a few extreme circumstances, but there are more run-of-the-mill times to document. Any decision made outside of the norm should be documented to account for the reason the decision was made. If an employee is permitted an exception to a policy, document who made the decision and why the decision was made. Include any support that was used in making the decision.

Relative to performance, document any particularly bad or good performance over the course of the year. It is a shame to think that an employee will be subject to only our memory to determine their performance evaluation. Documenting in real time and reviewing documentation before completing performance evaluations ensures that you will have the maximum amount of information from which to determine how employees perform over the course of the year.

Even if your memory is great, it is hard to remember everything. Furthermore, why bother wasting time remembering it, when you can just look it up?