Performance Reviews That Hold Up: Documentation Strategies That Protect Your Organization

Program Summary

In our interactive instructor-led 60-minute event, you will learn a practical framework for one of HR's most overlooked sources of legal exposure: the performance review. Reviews are written once and read many times, often by an attorney or investigator after a termination, complaint, or promotion dispute. What a manager wrote months earlier can decide whether your decision is supported or contradicted.

This session moves beyond rating scales and form templates to show you how to build reviews that are accurate, consistent, and defensible. You will learn how to catch inflated ratings and vague language before they become a problem, and how to make sure today's review supports tomorrow's decision.

You'll discover the following:

• How to write review language that is specific, factual, and tied to measurable expectations
• Why inflated or inconsistent ratings undermine later discipline and terminations, and how to correct them
• Specific phrases to use (and avoid) so comments reflect performance, not personality or assumptions
• Steps for documenting the review conversation and the employee's response

Program Highlights

Preparation: Building Reviews on Facts, Not Impressions

• How to gather performance data and examples before the writing starts
• Ways to calibrate ratings across managers and departments to prevent inconsistency claims
• Techniques for catching bias and subjective language during HR's review of drafts

The Conversation: Keeping the Written and Spoken Message Aligned

• How to make sure what is said in the meeting matches what is on paper
• Strategies for handling disagreement, rebuttals, and emotional reactions
• Ways to address performance concerns clearly without creating false expectations

Follow-Through: Records That Support Every Decision

• How to document the discussion, the employee's comments, and agreed next steps
• Ways to connect review findings to coaching, PIPs, and promotion decisions
• Best practices for storing and retaining review records

Question & Answer Session Have your specific questions answered!

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Join us to learn how to turn performance reviews into records that support your decisions instead of challenging them. You will leave with clear language, a consistent process, and documentation that protects your organization.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Margie Faulk, HR Compliance Advisor and E-Learning Trainer, HR Compliance Solutions, LLC

Margie Faulk is a senior-level human resources professional with over 15 years of HR management and compliance experience. A current Compliance Advisor for HR Compliance Solutions, LLC, Margie, has worked as an HR Compliance advisor for major corporations and small businesses in the small, large, private, public and non-profit sectors.  Margie has provided small to large businesses with risk management strategies that protect companies and reduces potential workplace fines and penalties for violation of employment regulations. Margie is bilingual (Spanish) fluent and Bi-cultural. Margie holds professional human resources certification (PHR) from the HR Certification Institution (HRCI) and SHRM-CP certification from the Society for Human Resources Management. Margie is a member of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE).