How to have difficult conversations with employees
- Overall review score, percent
- 76
- Competency score, percent of scale
- 76
- Ratings to fill in
- 9
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How to have difficult conversations with employees: prepare from the record, not from feeling; hold it privately and soon; state the specific behavior or result and its effect; listen and write down what the employee says; agree what changes and by when; and file the note. A conversation with those six parts is fair, and the note is what shows it was. The review template on this site records what was agreed and scores the next review against it, free and without an account; HeadcountDesk Pro keeps the note against the employee.
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Prepare from the record
The specific instance, the date, the result, the standard it fell short of. From the reviews and the file, not from memory or from what a colleague said.
Say it plainly, then listen
The behavior and its effect in two sentences, then silence. The employee's account goes in the note in their words.
Agree the change and the date
What changes on each side, by when, and how it will be measured. The free review template on this site records the goals agreed and scores the next review against them.
File the note
Date, what was said, what was agreed. The note is the fairness on record. From the vendors' own pricing pages: Homebase lists Essentials at $24 per location per month billed annually or $30 monthly, with a free Basic plan for one location of up to ten employees; BambooHR lists Core at $10 and Pro at $17 per employee per month; Deputy lists Core at $6.50 per user per month. HeadcountDesk Pro is $24 a month per location.
How to have difficult conversations with employees: common questions
Should I have someone else in the room?
For a disciplinary conversation, a witness is usual; for a performance conversation, privacy is usually better. Either way, write the note.
How soon after the event?
Within days; a conversation weeks later about a specific instance reads as a grudge.
Is the review template free?
Yes, with no account. Pro keeps the note against the employee.
Will it do what you need for How to have difficult conversations with employees?
Tell us what your business needs and we will tell you straight whether HeadcountDesk Pro does it today, whether it is coming, or whether you are better off with something else. A person reads these and replies.