Compare what you are observing now to the employee s past work history. Whatever the situation, your role is to assist the employee on getting back on track with their job performance. While you are observing keep your eye out for anyone who is enabling the worker. Enablers know something is wrong but may not know exactly what is going on. They tend to enable the employee with the problem by taking on extra work, covering up for the other employee s mistakes or absence, and by shifting attention elsewhere.
Documentation can occur in a variety of ways.
Some businesses videotape their employees in the every day performance of their jobs. Some have audio tape recordings of what employees are saying. Others have job performance calculations generated by computer. Even if your company uses one or more of these methods, you will most likely be doing your documentation in written form and using these other documentation methodologies as support. Remember to keep your handwritten notes even after you have typed up the final copy.