The 3 "Whats" of Documentation - A Simple Guide to Storytelling in Employee Relations

I love storytelling. There is nothing better than someone who can take the complexity of life and narrow it down into an exciting narrative - it's that "on the edge of your seat", engaging, sweating in anticipation of what happens next, storytelling. What I love most about good storytellers is their ability to be simple and yet descriptive - they tell it like it is and move it along, but in a way that paints a clear, beautiful picture, like you're there!

Those of us who are managers and HR pros understand that because employee relations can get messy and complicated, we oftentimes find that the resulting documentation becomes subjective, emotional, disorganized, and hard to follow. And then we have to go through umpteen emails and calls to try to get it right!

That got me thinking - how we can use the concept of storytelling to create a framework for documentation that not only makes ourselves more credible and effective, but also faster and clearer? How can we take the "mess" of statements, facts, opinions, speculation, historical context, and all of the other clutter of what you're dealing with and simplify it into an objective, organized, engaging story?

So, I came up with Three "Whats" of Documentation. My intention is to tee them up as a storytelling framework for any phase of the employee relations process (intake, investigation, documentation, communication, or disciplinary action). As an added bonus, I will be demonstrating them in action via a true story from my past. Hope you enjoy. :)

1.) What happened?

The first thing is to tell your audience the facts of the situation, or pattern of facts, as in a performance issue. Imagine that you're playing back a home movie from your childhood. You're setting the scene, then stating what happened. And what you are presenting is just the facts, with evidence. Observable, data-based facts. Direct quotes. No speculation, no internal dialogue, no emotional language. Who, what, when, where, and why, from beginning to end. Kind of like telling a story!

2.) So what?

Now that you've told your audience what happened, you next need to tell them about the impact that it made. In employee relations, there are certainly behaviors that show impact naturally, but this is documentation that we're talking about, and in a world full of litigation, you owe it to your audience to describe exactly why/how what happened was right or wrong. You're telling them why it matters. This may include:

• Any policies, rules, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), action plans, or leadership competencies that were violated
• Impact on the customer experience, another person's well-being, the team dynamic, the business operation as a whole, etc.
• Any resulting impact (i.e., as a result of you doing xx, the customer did yy, which resulted in zz impact)
• Describe the consequences of the actions. Whether that's getting a written warning for performance/conduct, getting privileges taken away, suspension, termination... whatever that is.

3.) Now what?

The best employee relations is future-oriented. That is to say, stating the facts and the impact is great, but then it's time to describe what the future should look like. It completes the "story" and it's the most fair to the employee - anyone who gets negative feedback should also know what they need to do differently and what that actually looks like.

• Prescribe any reparations or immediate corrections that need to be made. This may include needing to redo the work, apologize to the customer, pay back money owed, come up with an action plan to fix the leadership issues, etc... with due dates! Ensure that whatever plan is made is time-bound and has clear due date to establish a deadline by which you can follow up.
• Set expectations for the future. Describe what success looks like, what behaviors to start or stop, any routines or habits that need to start or stop, etc.
• Set dates for follow up. The most important piece, as this allows the story to start over again if the problems are not addressed. This includes naming the dates of follow up (or frequency), and what you'll expect to see at follow-up meetings.

Example/The Story!

What Happened? "In February of 2013, Nathan Singer attended an info session for a company recruiting for full-time HR. He was given feedback on three occasions prior to this event from his Associate Dean to 'control your communication, remain calm and professional, don't overreact, think before you speak.'"

"After the speaker of the event, Stan, finished giving his presentation, Nathan quickly ran up to the front of the room with a big smile on his face wanting to talk to Stan. According to Nathan, 'What I meant to say was something like, I really enjoyed your presentation, you seem like an inspirational leader who I would love to get to know.' Instead, Nathan exclaimed, 'STAN! I'M VERY ATTRACTED TO YOU!'"

"According to Nathan, 'I realized too late what I had said and saw a classmate standing next to me giving me a horrified look, and I looked back at Stan and saw that he was giving me a weird look. So I did what anyone else would do in that situation which is I walked away without saying another word.'"

So what? "Nathan, your comment was inappropriate and caused the info session to become awkward. Because your communication was not calculated, you did not give a good perception of your personal brand. Finally, you disregarded the counsel that was given to you previously regarding your verbal and non-verbal communication. This behavior is unacceptable."

"Because of your actions, you will be receiving a sad face and an eye roll from your Associate Dean. Additionally, you should expect this to have a negative impact on your interview tomorrow."

What now? "You will need to clarify what you meant to Stan during your interview tomorrow, and continue to meet with the Associate Dean each week to go over communication and professionalism during info sessions and interviews. During these meetings, please bring an action plan for any upcoming info sessions/interviews regarding how you will approach communication with the respective companies. Failure to improve on your communication will result in additional sad faces and eye rolls which may also include banging of the head against the wall."

NOTE: This was what went on in my head - no one actually disciplined me for this, except for myself. The ending is happy, though - I got the job. :)

To Conclude

I hope that you enjoyed the story, and I hope that this framework is helpful! It's all about making it simple to understand for you, your audience, and your employee. It's a small step that you can take to make your employee relations fly high! Remember...

• What happened; Give your audience a clear, objective, no-frills breakdown of the events.
• So what; Tell your audience why the behavior or incident matters - what is the impact?
• What now; Help your audience understand what needs to happen from here, and what the future should look like.