Only 5% of HR Leaders Trust Their Managers' Documentation. Here's What the Other 95% Are Missing.

Here's a question I used to hate asking as both a lawyer and HR: "What does the employee's file say?"

Because I usually knew the answer. Years of glowing performance reviews, the most recent one three months ago. Nothing since. 

So what's the problem? The manager on the other end of the call wanted to "make a change" - immediately.

For our brand-new 2026 State of Management benchmarking report, we surveyed 301 organizations and asked HR leaders the question behind that one: if you had to defend a termination decision tomorrow, how confident are you that your managers' feedback and documentation would support it?

Only 5% said they'd be confident across the board, for all of their managers' documentation. And the others?

- 23% would be confident for most managers

- 47% would be confident for only a few managers

- 25% wouldn't be confident at all

That means 95% of organizations are one bad exit away from finding out which manager's files won't hold up - and most HR teams already know it's a risk.

Why the file's empty - or glowing

Documentation doesn't fail because managers are sloppy. It fails because it's only as good as the feedback behind it - and 53% of organizations told us their managers give feedback quarterly or less.

Expectations play a big role too. We compared organizations based on whether manager expectations were documented and actually used:

- No documented expectations: 36% not confident defending a termination

- Documented, but nobody reads it: 25%

- Documented and actively used: 12%

When "good" isn't defined, there's nothing to measure performance against. So feedback feels like a personal opinion, managers put it off and the file stays empty until it suddenly isn't.

In the video below, I walk through that expectations gap - plus sneak peeks of two others from the research - and a fix for each that HR teams can start this week.

Documentation that holds up

The answer to a lack of documentation isn't to scramble and put it together when you want to let someone go. Documentation written the week of a termination looks like little more than a cover-up. The file that holds up is the one a manager built all along, just by doing the job.

Good documentation is:

- Timely: Written within a day or two, not reconstructed from memory at review time

- Specific: What actually happened, when and the impact - not "bad attitude"

- Shared: The team member heard it first, in a conversation, before it ever landed in their file

- Consistent: The same issue gets the same response, no matter who's involved

That third one matters more than people realize. If the first time someone sees a concern is in their termination paperwork, that's not documentation. That's an ambush.

For HR: find the gap before a lawsuit does

You don't need an audit of every file. Pull the last three performance-related exits and ask one question: would a stranger reading each file understand what was expected, when the team member was told they weren't meeting it and what happened next? Wherever the answer is no, you've found a manager who needs support, not just a reminder to "document everything."

Coming next week: the full report

Documentation is just one of a dozen findings in our 2026 State of Management Report. Next week, I'll share the full overview - what 301 organizations told us about how managers are promoted, trained, supported and measured, and what the organizations closing these gaps are doing differently. You'll also be able to download the full report and watch the replay of our live webinar.

Want to make sure you see it? Sign up for the Manager Method Minute and it'll land in your inbox.

If you're in HR: "Document everything" is advice, not a system. Our leadership platform gives every manager a shared language for feedback and accountability, practice for the hard conversations and toolkits they actually use - so the file builds itself in a way geared toward supporting performance, not marching toward termination. Book a call here to see how it works and how your organization compares to the 2026 benchmarks.

If you're a manager: Nobody teaches you how to document without it feeling like building a case against someone. Manager 101 gives you the scripts and tools to give regular, honest feedback - so documentation becomes a byproduct of good leadership, not a scramble. As one manager put it: "I wish I'd gotten this five years ago, but I'm so happy I have it now."