It's important to be consistent when learning how to write up an employee. Employee write-up forms only mean something if you use them the same way every time. Make sure your company has a clearly defined policy for when it's necessary to use an employee write-up form and use it every time those instances come up. Consistency is key to how to write up an employee properly.
What Is an Employee Write-Up Form? How to Write Up an Employee Correctly
An employee write-up form is a specific document used to either discipline an employee or to note some sort of workplace violation. When learning how to write up an employee, you use employee write-up forms to keep track of major breaks from work policies and standards.
Employee write-up forms are useful because they help human resource professionals understand how to write up an employee effectively, keep track of patterns of poor behavior, and give insight into the less-than-positive character traits of the company's employees.
If your company decides that it needs to start implementing employee write-up forms and learn how to write up an employee, it should agree on a specific template to use and create policies and procedures around its use. When learning how to write up an employee, write-up forms should be used in specific circumstances and shouldn't be used as a vindictive tool. Proper documentation of how to write up an employee protects both the employee and the company.
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What Should Your Employee Write-Up Include? How to Write Up an Employee with All Required Elements
When learning how to write up an employee, your employee write-up forms should include a variety of things.
Make sure each employee write-up form includes the following elements to properly document how to write up an employee:
- The employee's name or ID Number
- The employee's position
- The date of the write-up
- The specific behavior or incident that prompted the write-up
- Details about the incident
- Previous warnings or write-ups (if applicable)
- Expected behavioral improvements
- Consequences if behavior doesn't improve
- Signatures from both the manager and employee
All of this information is important for different reasons. It’s important that your employee write-up forms help HR remember what specifically went wrong. It’s also good to know how the company plans on righting those wrongs and who is responsible for making sure that happens.
It’s also important that you can create an easy-to-follow paper trail so you can see whether a specific employee keeps having the same problems, different problems, or has resolved them completely.
There are countless free employee write-up form templates online. You could use one of those or you could create your own. You should standardize whatever your HR department decides would be the best fit for your company.
Best Practices: Filling Out an Employee Write-Up
If you’re going to implement an employee write-up form in your company, it’s worth following some basic rules.
Be as specific as possible
When you’re recording an incident, be as specific as possible. If the employee is frequently late, write down the days they’re late and the times they came into work. If they’re making inappropriate comments, record what those comments were and who they were said to. The point is to leave out any and all ambiguity so others will know exactly what happened.
Write clearly and factually
Remember, an employee write-up form is a report, not a novel. Avoid flowery language and get to the point. Stick to Subject + Verb + predicate form. Use proper names wherever possible to avoid pronoun confusion. Make sure that someone who wasn’t there could understand your report.
Explain what will happen now
A major reason why employee write-up forms are so important is that they should be the stepping stone for righting wrongs. If an employee is in the wrong, a report should clearly outline what that employee needs to do to fix the situation. It should outline everyone’s responsibilities as far as correcting behavior and actions are concerned. This way, you can revisit the report and see if the employee has made progress and improved or not.
Try not to emote in the employee write-up form
As a coworker, you should really be more concerned about actions than characteristics. It doesn’t really matter how lazy someone is at home, so long as they work hard while at work. To that end, try to avoid describing who the employee is and focus on what they do. Talk about the tasks they’re skipping rather than their lack of work ethic. This will help you look at the issue more objectively.
Be consistent in your write-ups
Employee write-up forms only mean something if you use them the same way every time. Make sure your company has a clearly defined policy for when it’s necessary to use an employee write-up form and use it every time those instances come up.
Ask those involved to sign the employee write-up
Part of the process includes recognition and accountability from all involved parties. For example, an employee’s manager should be aware of problems as they appear, but they should also be made aware of what needs to happen to consider the issue fixed. Getting them to review and sign the employee write-up form is a great way to get them on board.
Revver Keeps Employee Write-Ups in Order
Whether you’ve been using employee write-up forms for years or you’re just starting to use them, you’ll need to store, organize, and access them in order to keep them effective.
Revver can help with that.
Not only can Revver store all of your documents without using any paper, but it can also automatically request manager signatures thanks to its automated workflows. It can also destroy documents after they have expired. Additionally, Revver's auto-permissions will help make sure that nobody has access to these employee write-up forms aside from those who should.
If you’re looking to get your office organized, try Revver. Let's talk today.