How to Write an Incident Report Letter

Each employee can record the fact of non-fulfillment of official duties by his or her colleague (or several colleagues) and initiate the preparation of the incident report according to a specific format or in free form.

Incident report letter is a document addressed to the head of the company on any issue, outlining the proposals on the problem. Contrary to stereotype, it must not be necessarily applied to disciplinary offenses, but can be informational and reference in nature and affect any production problems.

As a rule, such paper is used as an element of feedback between the supervisor and the subordinate. If the report is intended for top management, customer, or senior partner, it is created on a special letterhead with contact information and stamp.

Structure of the Document

As usual, the content of the document consists of three sections:

1. The actual part, where the presence of the incident is ascertained, and the circumstances surrounding it are described.
2. Analytical paragraph, which is revealing the occurring and potential consequences of the incident.
3. Recommendations, where the author of the document sets out his or her vision of the situation and offers solutions to the problem.

Depending on the issue and the type of incident report, the analytical part may be excluded. In many situations, a statement of fact is also a subject of discussion, whatever the consequences it entails. For example, a report on absenteeism, in any case, indicates a disciplinary violation, and it is not required to provide supporting arguments.

When writing such a document, it is worth remembering that this is a legally significant document. Therefore the emotional component in the text is inappropriate. Reporting related to the violation of labor discipline by employees in organizations are written very often. As a rule, they relate to tardiness, absenteeism, being at work in a drunken state, non-fulfillment of official duties, non-compliance with internal instructions, etc.

Incident ReportSample

Usually, the company has its own samples and rules for creating incident reports, when it is necessary to record the fact of non-fulfillment of official duties by employees. Therefore, the format and features of the document content are created in free form. Here is an example of such a paper.

I bring to your attention that consultant, Jessica Smith, was absent from 2 to 6 p.m. on January 20, 2018. The next morning, she came to work on time. She explained that she was feeling unwell due to a chronic disease yesterday. When the worker was asked why she didn’t inform her supervisor about this situation, Smith replied that she had forgotten to call her chief because of the bad state of health. Jessica Smith had been working at our company for more than ten years; she had always been conscientious about her duties and had no disciplinary actions. The absence of the worker from 2 to 6 p.m. on January 20, 2018, did not affect the work of the unit.

In connection with the above, I propose not to punish employee Smith, but to hold a conversation about the inadmissibility of such situations in the future.

As can be seen from the above example, the incident report does not necessarily entail punitive measures against the guilty. However, an employee who has the subordinate staff or is responsible for a certain scope of work does not have the right to hush up the misdemeanors of subordinates and conceal circumstances that could lead to a breakdown in the fulfillment of assigned tasks. His or her direct responsibility is to bring information to higher management.