A walkthrough of the features offered in the Incident system which was designed explicitly for this purpose
AngelTrack's incident system can take over the bookkeeping involved in disciplinary writeups.
Train Supervisors to Use the Incident System
Your supervisors are probably accustomed to using paper for disciplinary writeups and signatures. Throw away all remaining paper write-up forms, and post an announcement explaining the policy change:
After completing the preliminary writeup, leave the incident unassigned if you want HR to triage it to the appropriate supervisor; otherwise, assign the incident to the appropriate person.
If accusing an employee of misconduct, write a preliminary incident and then assign the incident to the employee, along with instructions to write a statement and then send the incident back.
Proper Sequence of Events
The proper sequence of events for a disciplinary writeup is:
- Preliminary writeup seeking information
- Supervisor or dispatcher creates an incident record, and writes down only what they saw or heard.
- Include instructions to the employee to add their statement and then send the incident back.
- Assign the incident to the employee and click "Save".
- Employee statement
- Employee adds their statement to the incident.
- Employee attaches photos or other exhibits as necessary.
- Employee reassigns the incident to the supervisor and then clicks "Save".
- Supervisor findings
- Collect statements from additional employees as necessary.
- Attach photos or other exhibits as necessary.
- Supervisor writes his or her conclusions and recommendations.
- Check the ☑ Request a signature from the employee box
- Reassign the incident to HR or upper management as appropriate and then click "Save".
- Management action
- If necessary, wait for the employee's signature to appear (it will be collected when the employee next logs in to AngelTrack).
- Take action as appropriate.
- Add to the incident a description of actions taken.
- Change the incident status to "Closed" and then click "Save".
A Warning About Signature Collection
When AngelTrack collects a signature from blamed employees, those employees are shown all of the following information from the incident record:
- Summary
- Cause
- All comments
- All attachments
...so that they are fully aware of what they are signing. If you intend to add confidential information to the incident, do so after signature collection, not before.
No Witness Signature Needed
Traditional writeup forms include a space for a witness signature, in the event the employee refuses to sign. AngelTrack does not collect witness signatures because it can already attest that the employee in question was shown the incident and subsequently refused to sign.
AngelTrack does not permit the employee to make use of any other AngelTrack features until he or she either:
- signs and then clicks the "Acknowledge" button; or
- clicks the "Refuse to Sign" button.
The date and time of signing or refusal is captured for later reference.
Permanent Electronic Storage
AngelTrack will store the incident for seven years, with links to the employees' files (in AngelTrack), as well as the files of any blamed vehicle, facility, patient. It is not necessary to print out a hard copy.
That said, if your operation also maintains paper employee files in the HR department, and if the people who use those files are unaware of AngelTrack, then paper copies of the incident should be placed in employee files.
Clearing a Signature
If you wish to clear an employee signature from an incident, change the blamed party back to "[None involved]" and save.
To collect a new signature, then change the blamed party to whomever AngelTrack should ask to sign it.
A Short Story to Read Before Firing Someone
If an employee causes an expensive accident and you are considering termination, we invite you to read the following story before making your final decision...
The great aviation pioneer Howard Hughes flew himself to and from business meetings, for the sheer joy of flying. One particular day he planned to do exactly this, and so phoned ahead to the airfield to have his personal airplane brought out of the hangar and refueled for the trip.
The trip was expected to be two hours outbound and then two hours returning, so a total of four hours' worth of fuel (about 40 gallons) was required. Small airplanes at the time (1940s) did not have fuel gauges; therefore, before each trip, the anticipated fuel load is calculated and added to the airplane. They do not fill the tanks to full if they do not anticipate needing full tanks, because fuel is heavy.
Howard reached the airport, parked his car, did a quick walkaround of the aircraft, and then took off for his destination.
An hour and a half into the flight, the airplane unexpectedly ran out of fuel. The fuel load had been miscalculated.
Howard had to land in a farmer's field. The rough ground wrecked the airplane, but Howard was okay. He walked to the nearby farmhouse and called for a ride back home.
When he finally got back to the airport, he summoned the young man who had refueled his airplane. The young man had already heard what'd happened, and was terrified to answer for crashing (and almost killing) the legendary Howard Hughes.
The young man entered Howard's office, quivering in fright.
Howard said:
"You are now in charge of all refueling operations for all of my aircraft here."
"W-why?" the young man managed to answer.
"Because you are the only person here that I am certain will not make that mistake."