By Jack Ruffer

When I entered the Human Resources profession I had four goals in mind: #1- Be the best at MY profession, #2- Earn a good income #3- Have fun, and #4- Put employment law attorneys out of work. I did a pretty good job on goals #1 through #3. But, after all these years, I'm still working on goal #4. Anything any of you out there can do to help me accomplish this goal will be greatly appreciated. I think I know the secret to reaching the goal but it's going to take all of us working together to make it happen. Oh, the secret? Use common sense!

Many times in my career I have been approached by a manager who wanted an employee fired, this instant! I would then pull the employee’s file and invariably find glowing performance appraisals. This employee went from walking on water to the refuse heap overnight? The manager's demand was unsupportable. The problem? A lack of candor when the performance appraisal(s) was (were) written and a lack of any documentation between those appraisals.

My rule: DOCUMENT!  Every time you observe something positive or negative in performance or behavior, document it. Start an individual's next performance appraisal the day you deliver their last one to them. Record your observations in a secure file, then, when it comes time to write the next appraisal, it’s all there. All you have to do is edit your comments.

If it’s a problem requiring corrective action, the employee should receive a verbal warning. A second occurrence requires a written warning. Document it, get the necessary concurrences supported by signatures and present it to the employee. If another problem occurs which requires corrective action, document it, include a reasonable period of time to correct the problem (60-90 days), get the necessary concurrences by signatures, and present it to the employee, warning of possible termination if the problem is not corrected or if there is another similar problem. In all four stages, (performance appraisal, verbal warning, written warning, corrective action plan), attempt to be firm, fair, candid, temperate and reasonable in your comments.

By following this procedure, you may help protect the company from potential litigation. Should a terminated employee seek redress through the courts, their attorney will be more likely to find their client doesn't have a case. They received fair warning, due process, and the company followed published procedures (usually found in the employee handbook or the company's Human Resource Manual).

So, what do you think? Let's use common sense, follow these procedures, and starve those hovering employment law attorneys.

Do you have any HR-related questions you would like answered? Contact us at  and we'll put you in touch with Jack Ruffer