The Importance Of Documentation For Supervisors And Managers

For managers and supervisors of union-represented employees, documentation affects grievances, arbitration and everyday operations. This 90-minute documentation training for supervisors and managers explains why it matters and how to do it well.

You'll see how poor documentation leads to lost grievances and arbitration cases under the just cause standard, how it affects an employee's right to due process, and why consistent treatment matters. Past practices also shape discipline: if a violation was once handled with a verbal discussion, a sudden suspension can backfire.

The session covers the five Ws of documentation, documentation styles and formats, filing, what the union or an attorney can access, and how to word verbal discussions and discipline.

• Apply the five Ws of documentation
• Choose the right documentation style and format
• Explain how documentation supports just cause and due process
• Write verbal discussions and discipline with the right language and only relevant facts
• Identify what the union and attorneys can access
• Recognize and change past practices that undermine consistent discipline

• The history of documentation
• The five Ws: who, what, when, where and why to document
• Documentation styles: verbatim, narrative, outline and fact listing
• Documentation formats, key language and where records are filed
• What the union can access during a grievance and what an attorney can obtain in discovery
• How documentation affects the just cause standard
• Alternative methods and legal challenges to documentation
• Documentation and the employee's right to due process
• The disciplinary process: verbal discussions, written letters, suspensions and final warnings
• Consistent treatment and documentation
• How past practices affect documentation and how to change a past practice
• Whether discipline can ever be combined

Document to support the business, not to pay arbitrators, back pay, agency fines or lawsuit costs. A verbal discussion must tell employees what they did wrong and what happens if performance doesn't improve, and records should hold only relevant facts, not opinions or emotions.

The session suits supervisors, managers, directors and senior business leaders who manage or work with union-represented employees.

• Supervisors
• Managers
• Directors Senior Business Leaders

Gerry McLaughlin Ms. IR, is the author of "Negotiating The Labor Agreement” His experience covers 40 years of successfully negotiating over 500+ labor contracts in varied industries as Executive Director and Vice President for Fortune 100 Companies, and in areas, such as but not limited to, Manufacturing, Distribution, Telecom, Retail, Healthcare & Senior Care, Food Services, Housekeeping & Facilities.

He has negotiated with over 20 National and Local Unions, trained 1000’s Managers in “Managing a Union Workforce", “Negotiating The Labor Agreement”, “Your Employees Are Organizing A Union”, and Collective Bargaining as well as Union Avoidance and Employee Relations issues. He knows and fully understands: 

• How to build and maintain successful relationships with Union Leaders locally and nationally
• Maintain and/or Develop existing Managements Rights to ensure the unfettered Right “to run your business” to ensure successful Workplace policies
• Develop and/or protect consistent Contract language. He consistently ensures that clients' expectations are often exceeded