Performance Improvement Guide

Our Performance Improvement tool enables Managers and HR teams to collaborate on performance issues which aids in streamlining communication, ensuring proper documentation, and increasing accountability to systematically improve performance deficiencies across your organization. 

Launching the Performance Workflow  

In order to start the Performance Improvement Workflow, navigate to the relevant Case and click ‘+New’ under the Performance Improvement section as seen below.  

Note: Any admin with case access can launch this workflow with the exception of Viewers.

Performance Workflow Creation

Enter the relevant details to create a new Performance Improvement Workflow: 

• Performance Issue Name: A unique and identifiable name for the performance issue. 
• Description: A brief description of the issue. 
• Date Performance Issue(s) started: The date the performance issue(s) started.
  • This may differ from the date the performance workflow was created in AllVoices. 
• Employee: First and last name of the employee pulling from your HRIS if connected
• Primary issue: Select the primary issue from the dropdown menu 
• Manager: Select the employee’s Manager from the dropdown menu in order to assign the issue. (If the Manager has not yet been set up in AllVoices, your Owner(s) can add them under Settings). 
  • Note: The assigned Manager will be granted edit access to Performance Workflow, but will NOT be given access to the case unless manually added under Manage Access. To learn more about the Manager role, including how to add a Manager, click here.
• Press ‘Create’

Accessing the Performance Improvement Workflow

Once you’ve created the Performance Improvement Workflow you can access it by pressing ‘View’ under ‘Performance Improvement’ on the case level:

If you do not have full case access but are the ‘Assigned Manager’ on the Performance Improvement Workflow you can access the workflow via the case list view. You will see a lock icon next to the case name indicating you do not have full access to the case. 

Clicking on the performance icon will land you on the performance improvement workflow view - we’ll dive into this in the next section. 

If you’d like to only see Performance Improvement workflows you can click on the performance icon in the case list view and it will filter to cases that include Performance Improvement Workflows.

Managing a Performance Improvement Workflow View

In this view you can: 

• Adjust the Performance Improvement workflow status. Status options include:
  • New: This is the default setting when Performance Improvement workflow is first created 
  • In Progress: An admin can mark a Performance Improvement workflow as ‘In Progress’ as it starts to be actioned upon
  • Complete: Once the Performance Improvement workflow has finished, an admin can mark the workflow as ‘Complete’
• Add or edit the following in your Performance Improvement workflow:
  • Name
  • Description
  • Date performance issue started 
  • Employee
  • Primary issue 
  • Assign or reassign a new manager  
• Select an action that best fits the outcome of a Performance Improvement workflow

In the ‘Documentation’ section you can add related documentation and log relevant activities to your Performance Improvement workflow. This section allows Managers and HR to have clear visibility into how the workflow is progressing over time to facilitate better collaboration.

Documentation

Proper documentation is critical to demonstrate that employees with performance deficiencies are given the opportunity to succeed. 

Under the ‘Documentation’ tab you can create a new document, choose from the available templates, or upload documentation. 

Uploading Documentation

Upload documentation by pressing ‘+Add Documentation’. 

Name, describe, and upload your documentation and select ‘Create.’

Performance documentation typically includes but is not limited to:

• The employee’s performance review
• The related job description
• Relevant policies, screenshots, & emails
• Performance discussions and coaching conversations
• Written and verbal warnings
• Performance improvement plans. 

*Documentation will be visible to any administrator with access to the Performance Improvement workflow. 

Creating a New Document

Select from the available templates or create a new document by clicking ‘+Blank Document.’ 

Choosing ‘+Blank Document’ will create a new document for documenting coaching conversations/ performance discussions, drafting performance improvement plans or written warnings, and creating ad-hoc documents related to the Performance Improvement workflow. 

Get started by titling the document and adding your desired section from the below options:

• Short section 
• Long section 
• Checklist 
• Header 

The new document will be sorted in the ‘Documentation’ tab according to the date it was created. Administrators with access to the performance issue can view or download the document, however, only the document owner and collaborators can edit it. 

Performance Templates

When managing a Performance Improvement workflow you can select from our Performance Improvement workflow templates or create your own custom templates for your organization. 

View all templates by selecting ‘See more templates.’

Our templates include:

• Performance Improvement Plan Checklist 
  • A thorough, step-by-step guide to conducting a Performance Improvement Plan within AllVoices 
• Performance Improvement Plan
  • A template for writing a performance improvement plan which can then be executed downloaded and sent to the the employee for signature
• Coaching Conversation/Performance Discussion
  • A template for conducting coaching conversations 
• Written Warning / Corrective Action
  • A template for providing a formal warning  

If you’d like to use one of our available templates, press the + in the relevant template to get started.

Creating Your Own Templates 

You can also create custom templates to help standardize the performance improvement process according to your organization’s specific policies and practices. 

To create a custom template select ‘See more templates’ 

Once in the template gallery press ‘Create new template’

You can then name the template, add sections and ‘Publish’ the template to be used by others in your organization.

Templates do not autosave; if you leave without publishing the new template or changes made to an existing template, it will not be saved. 

Any template you create will be visible to all administrators system-wide. Do not include any confidential information regarding a specific Performance Improvement workflow when creating a template. If you would like to create a document specific to the performance improvement issue, select ‘+Blank Document’. Document access is restricted to the Performance Improvement workflow while templates are visible system-wide. 

Activity Log 

The Activity Log is important to show that the Performance Improvement workflow, including the plan for the employee, was unbiased and actionable and provided the employee a fair opportunity to improve. 

Certain performance related actions are tracked automatically in the Activity Log including: 

• Performance Improvement workflow created by {Admin Name} 
• Performance marked status = {In Progress, New, Complete} 
• {Admin name} assigned {Admin name} as the investigator 
• {Admin name} unassigned {Admin name} as the manager 
• {Admin name} marked Action= {First conversation, Repeat/Ongoing discussion, First warning, Second warning, Final warning, Performance improvement plan, Performance improved, Dismissal} 
• Any changes made to the following fields: 
  • Performance Issue Name 
  • Description
  • Date performance issue started 
  • Employee 
  • Primary issue 
  • Manager

To add an activity press “Add Activity” 

When adding an activity fill out the relevant information: 

• Activity Name  
  • Ex: Coaching Discussion  
• Select the Activity type: 
  • Ex: Coaching conversation 
• Description of Activity 
• Activity Location (if applicable) 
• Date of Activity
• Time of Activity 
• Parties Present 

After filling out the necessary information, press ‘Create.’

The created activity will then be added to the activity log and visible to anyone with access to the performance issue. Only the admin that created the activity can edit or delete it. 

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Performance Improvement from AllVoices! If you have any questions please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or support@allvoices.co.