You should document BOTH the positive and negative issues that come to your attention:
- If an employee has done a good job (e.g., worked on a special project, maintained an excellent error rate, was effective with a difficult customer), document these observations and share them with the employee. Positive documentation is a powerful incentive for people to continue to achieve a high level of performance.
- If an employee has exhibited poor work habits, has tardiness or attendance problems, isn’t meeting quality or quantity standards, is discourteous, or has other such performance or conduct problems, you should document your observations relative to these problems and promptly share them with the employee. This sort of documentation should be presented in a constructive manner to assist the employee in improving.