If an employee is falling behind on a milestone, strategy or objective for the first time, an e-mail or phone call reminder may be all that is needed to get the employee back on track. If this does not correct the problem or more dates are missed, a face-to-face meeting should be scheduled. During this meeting the manager will ask the employee why the dates are being missed and then together they should develop an action plan to help the employee get back on track. The agreed upon action plan should be documented and signed by both the manager and employee and then placed in the employees personnel file. This process reinforces to the employee how important it is to meet the dates associated with each objective and also demonstrates how important these dates are to the manager as well as the entire organization.

Dan Stewart
Mr. Objectives
Twitter: @MrObjectives