To improve or maintain good performance. This outcome of documentation is the most critical and most productive. To support personnel decisions. Clearly, we live in a litigious society and documentation is one form of protection. The need for documentation is especially critical when termination decisions are being made.
Documentation is essential for producing accurate performance evaluations.
Another good use of documentation is to improve a manager's ability to give employees constructive feedback. When feedback must be delayed, documentation provides useful and perhaps a necessary reminder of what occurred and when it occurred. Good feedback, based on strong documentation, is key to helping employees improve performance before it becomes a problem. The longer a manager waits, the less accurate the documentation is likely to be. See Documenting Performance Issues for an example of formal documentation.