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By your metric, which of your writers is the most valuable? Who is
poerforming well, and who is performing poorly?
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Of course we have a standard objectives-driven job performance measure as
well. The production objectives for tech writers and other members of the
QMS Team are established on the project's Gantt chart and in the QMS Team's
weekly meeting minutes. If a writer agreed to "I will start documentation
of the XXX area in October and have it all completed and ready for a
preliminary audit by the end of November", and meets that objective with
good, usable documentation, they are meeting their objective. As Goddess of
the Documents, I get to say if somebody's writing is not up to snuff -- and
as recorder of the QMS Team meetings I write it down in the minutes whenever
their "to-do"s were not delivered. I also record schedule changes if they
were pro-active and gave advance notice that the schedule would not be met
(and why). It's up to Management to take corrective action if schedules are
not met without advance notice and good reasons. As Lead Auditor I get to
submit a Corrective Action Request to Management if I don't get a
deliverable that I was promised, but it's just that I'm following the
process, not that I'm getting into a personality clash with a busy person.
Knowing that there are consequences for not keeping promises does tend to
keep people honest -- and either delivering or giving some advance notice so
that the rest of us can adjust our own schedules or fill in the waiting time
with something productive.
Somebody who always delivers good work on time is performing well. Somebody
who delivers decent work but never on time needs coaching. Somebody who is
obviously just blowing off their documentation tasks is going to get a
sit-down with the boss early enough that the behavior can be corrected, and
the re-direction is going to come from an authority high enough that the
message can be heard. (old corporate rule -- corrections and directives must
flow from above, they cannot be heard from below or from a peer).
This assumes that the writer has a corporate champion. These require
education, care, and culture worthy of another separate topic.
Dori Green
Technical Writer, QMS Project
Associated Brands, Inc.
Medina, NY Facility
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