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How to manage a forced delay in giving negative feedback?
I work as a sales manager with reps spread out across the state. I recently had a rep have a 3rd incident of a performance issue. I had given feedback one both of the prior occasions.
In my organization one of the critical pieces of this puzzle is to provide "official" documentation vs. notes to file etc. The reason being, If I have to move to a more performance improvement plan I can only do so with proper documentation.
The trouble with this system is that any "official" documentation must be run through HR prior to providing the feedback. This results in a delay of the negative feedback.
It ends up putting the manager in a situation where I have talked to this rep in the time between the issue and when I'll have to give feedback. This is a challenge because I cannot bring the issue up at this time and now I'll have to "hit" that rep with negative feedback that has been delayed by over one week.
Any suggestions for me on how to better manage this issue?
Thanks,
Jason
At which stage of feedback?
Which stage of feedback are you in? Are you using "regular" feedback, finishing with an open question " what can you do differently"?
Or are you giving systemic feedback?
You write you already gave feedback twice before. Did you do that without this "documentation" procedure? What made you decide to change?
A delay in giving feedback is normally no problem. Just make sure that it is "no big deal". Note that the goal of feedback is not documentation, but to "encourage effective behavior".