Tracking completed NA's, do you bother?

[w_i_t_n_a]

Some jobs, have some projects that do require a level of detail that drives a requirement to track and record completed Next Actions for legal or other CYA reasons.

I work in HR (forgive me...), tracking employee grievances requires a lot of detailed note taking and follow up with lots of NA';s until the grievance is resolved, and the project is completed.

Would others on this forum like to share some thoughts about how they track completed NA's.

Do you use a project tracking sheet in the project support material file and date your NA's before handing them off to your @Action list?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jpm]

Tracking completed projects and next actions.

Yes, I'm using Outlook and the Add-In. For the last several years I've simply moved all completed next actions and projects into an Archive .pst file. That way I can track when tasks and projects were completed.

This year I've experimented with using the journal for this purpose, which will give me the ability to track not only action items and projects but also appointments, e-mail and documents associated with a project. It's a bit cumbersome at the moment, but I've just about got the macros completed that automate much of this. Once that's done it should be as easy as archiving completed tasks but give me a better over-all audit trail of what was done....

 

[tim99]

I would think that one sheet of paper for each action item, with the action item and the status at the top, along with dated notes down the paper would work. The status could simply be Open or Closed. Or Pending or Complete.

I would think that you would need one folder for each grievance that has those bending fasteners at the top for two holed punched paper so you can keep each paper in order based on when you first wrote out the item.

Something like:

--------------------------------------------------------------

Employee 234980 Grevience 0009 Item 0027 Page 1 Open

Call Bill Gates to confirm if Employee 234980 can actually fly.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Called Bill Gates on 09212005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09222005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09232005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09242005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09252005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09262005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09272005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09282005 and left message.

--------------------------------------------------------------

And then:

--------------------------------------------------------------

Employee 234980 Grevience 0009 Item 0027 Page 1 CLOSED

Call Bill Gates to confirm if Employee 234980 can actually fly.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Called Bill Gates on 09212005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09222005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09232005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09242005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09252005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09262005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09272005 and left message.
Called Bill Gates on 09282005 and left message.
Talked to Bill Gates on 09282005 and he confirmed that yes
our Employee 234980 can fly.

--------------------------------------------------------------

You may need to add the status of "Abandoned" for items that
are not closed but not open becasue you are no longer going to
continue working toward closing that specific action item.

You could use color coded post-its to designate status, or to designate
who you can delegate each action item to, or to designate context. All your calls could be blue, emails green, letters yellow, etc.

If you are talking legal and CYA, nothing like handwritten notes, printed out emails, all in one physical file. Even if you need someone to fill out a form, creating an action item that you need for them to fill out the form, and then close that item when you get the form. You do not have just the form, you also have the action item when you confirm that you recieved that form.

The front of the file could have a check list of the things that you need to do for that file.

When your boss or lawyer asks where you are on these, nothing like pulling out a stack of documentation. No one can say that you are not organized and that you have not been working.