The Documentation Gap: Why Your Managers Struggle With Performance Conversations

Why Your Managers Struggle With Performance Conversations

When was the last time your managers were truly trained on how to document employee performance?

We don’t mean a quick reminder in a team meeting or a bullet point in a handbook that says, “Keep notes just in case.”
We’re talking about real, practical training—on what to document, how to write it clearly, when to do it, and why it matters.

Because here’s what we see all the time:

• Managers giving verbal feedback but never writing it down

• Notes that are vague, inconsistent, or missing entirely

• HR getting pulled in after an issue has escalated—with little to no context or documentation to work from

By the time it reaches that point, it’s much harder to support anyone involved—whether it’s the manager trying to take action, the employee needing support, or HR trying to navigate next steps.

Here’s the thing:
Good documentation isn’t about building a paper trail or “covering yourself.” It’s about creating clarity.

When done well, documentation becomes a tool to:

• Support meaningful coaching conversations

• Set clear expectations

• Track progress over time

• And yes, navigate tough decisions more confidently if things don’t improve

But none of that happens if your managers haven’t been shown how to do it. Too often, managers are promoted for being great individual contributors—not because they were trained to lead people. And one of the first things to fall through the cracks is performance documentation.