Stay Well-Informed by Using a 5/1 Report

In this fast-paced business world, it's often difficult for managers to find time to give feedback to their employees and to solicit input from them. Today managers need a fast, simple, structured feedback method that keeps them up-to-date on a worker's progress with little or no involvement on the manager’s part. This is why I created the 5/1 Report.

The 5/1 Report is a brief performance summary that takes no more than five minutes for the sender to write and no more than one minute for the receiver to read. The key to a good 5/1 Report is brevity. Its purpose of the report is to start the communication process. It is not meant to be a tool that fully informs or answers every question or concern. It should not cover everything an employee has done in the week. Each section of the report should be completed in bullet points rather than narrative format. If additional information is required, the manager can contact the employee for a more comprehensive briefing.

A 5/1 Report is a brief, regular (usually weekly), written update that keeps a manager informed about the activities and accomplishments of his/her employees. Normally it is used in situations where a manager and an employee are not in personal contact or when they are unable to meet regularly face-to-face. This report, to a small degree, fills the gap when individuals cannot share information or discuss issues via other feedback structures, such as regularly held staff meetings.

The purpose of a 5/1 Report is to have an information-sharing tool that, when used properly, initiates a further discussion between a manager and an employee. The report should address accomplishments and issues from the week, as well as provide a “heads-up” on issues or concerns anticipated in the upcoming week(s). The 5/1 is meant to be a two-way communication tool. If, instead, it merely becomes a one-way written "report," it is not fulfilling its intended purpose. When used properly the 5/1 stimulates numerous opportunities for a manager and an employee to discuss progress, accomplishments, and problems. A personal contact follow-up is a critical component of deriving the full value of the 5/1 Report.

I created the 5/1 Report while working at a large multi-national corporation where my staff was based at locations in several different states throughout the country. I needed a tool that kept me informed and allowed me to feel connected with my dispersed staff. I also wanted a way for every member of my widely scattered team to feel unified even though we were working out of different offices. Our 5/1 Reports accomplished both purposes. In my case I had every member of my team send their 5/1 to every other member of the team so we all knew what was going on in each team member’s area.          

5/1 Reports are very powerful when shared with every member of a peer group. It encourages all members to follow-up with any other member of the team to solicit additional information, help resolve issues, provide feedback and advice, or offer encouragement or congratulations as the situation dictates. This creates a work environment of open communication and builds team member trust, respect, confidence, and support.

When you receive a 5/1 Report you should keep it in the employee's file. Each 5/1 document provides useful data for monthly Personal Progress Interviews, performance reviews, or other performance feedback situations. (Click here for more information about Personal Progress Interviews.)

Remember, the primary purpose of a 5/1 Report is to get people talking about the information in the report. The 5/1 should be a dynamic process, not a static or stale written report. Verbal interaction and feedback is the ultimate purpose of a 5/1. The follow-up after you receive a 5/1 is what makes it a powerful feedback tool.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS ON A 5/1 REPORT

If you could only ask three or four questions of your employees to find out how things are going in your work area, what questions would you ask? If you were limited in your time and wanted a quick update of progress and conditions in your areas of responsibility, what information would you like your employees to provide to you in their brief response?

My 5/1 Reports only ask three questions. The answers to those three questions tell me everything I need to know about how my employees are performing. The first question on the report lets me know what they are doing. The second question tells me how well they are doing it. And the third question assesses whether or not they are improving their performance on a regular basis.

My three questions are listed below with thought-starter questions bulleted beneath each over-arching question. The sub-bullet questions are offered as thought-starters only. It is not necessary that each of the sub-questions is answered. In fact, I don’t want them to answer each of the bullet questions. The 5/1 Report is not a comprehensive performance update. It is a brief summary of what is going on. If the report takes longer than five minutes for the employee to prepare and more than one minute for someone to read, it is being done wrong. Brevity is key to a 5/1 Report.

Part 1: What Did You Do This Week?

• What were you involved in or working on this week? 
• What was your role in the things you have been involved in?
• Whom did you meet with this week?  How did the meetings go?
• How well did you perform in your accomplishments?
• What worked?  What didn't work?      
• Did you have any problems or difficulties?
• Did you overcome any hurdles or barriers?
• How far along are you on your assignments?

Part 2: How Do You Feel About What You Did This Week?

• How are things going?
• How do you feel about your efforts?
• Anything you'd do differently next time?
• How do you feel about the level of your work? (Too much/little, too hard/easy, etc.)
• Anything bothering you? Anything getting in the way of your success?
• Are you satisfied with your progress and with your role in the organization?

Part 3: What Ideas for Improvement Do You Have? (if any)

• Is there anything that needs to be noticed, changed, improved, checked-out, thrown-out, tweaked, dropped, picked-up, etc.?
• Is there anything that we can optimize, minimize, synthesize, or alter?
• Is there anything that would make our lives easier around here?

HOW TO CREATE A 5/1 REPORT

1.    Identify what information you would like to receive from your employees on a regular basis. The least amount of input you ask for the better your 5/1 Reports will be. Think of just two or three questions that, when answered, will tell you everything you need to know about how your employee is doing. In the example given above, question 2 — “How do you feel about what you did this week?” — is much more important to me than what the employee actually did that week.  

2.    Develop a template or format for your employees to use for their 5/1. Again, easy-to-use and very brief forms work best.

3.    Determine when and how the 5/1 reports are to be delivered. Before e-mail came into existence, I had each member of my team fax their 5/1 to all of the team members by 5:00 p.m. EST every Friday. This allowed everyone time to review them over the weekend or first thing Monday morning. Now I have my staff e-mail them at the conclusion of their business day on Friday. Since e-mail can be accessed any time from any location, there is no need to receive them by 5:00 p.m. as before.

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Mac McIntire is the president of Innovative Management Group, a Las Vegas-based training and consulting firm specializing in strategic visioning and alignment, organizational effectiveness, management development, quality improvement, customer service, and teamwork. He can be reached at 702-592-6431 or e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.imglv.com