Before you treat it as a performance problem, check the timing of your feedback. The same mistake three times usually means the person heard about it three times, each time days after the work went out, and never while they could fix it. Move the feedback to before the work goes: point at the gap, say why it matters, say what to do. If the mistake still repeats after ten pieces of work with feedback on each, then it is a different conversation, and you will have the record to have it.
The pattern on a recruiting desk
A recruiter sends a submittal without the shift line. The client rejects it on Thursday. The manager mentions it Friday. The following week, the same recruiter has sent four more submittals, two without the shift line. The client rejects one. The manager mentions it again, a little sharper. Three weeks later: "She keeps making the same mistake."
She heard about it twice, both times after it was too late to do anything but feel bad. Nobody showed her the gap on a submittal she could still fix.
Check these three things first
1. Is the standard written down? If "good submittal" lives in your head, the person is guessing. Write the three lines that must open every submittal and give it to them.
2. Did the feedback arrive before the work went out? If every piece of feedback was about work the client already saw, the lesson never had a chance to stick. People learn from the piece of work in front of them, not the one from last week.
3. Was the feedback specific? "Be more careful" is not feedback. "Line two is missing the shift; add it and send" is.
Fix those three and most repeating mistakes stop within ten pieces of work.
The loop that fixes it
For the next ten submittals: the recruiter writes it, someone reads it against the order the same hour, says in plain words what is missing, the recruiter fixes it, then it goes. Keep a short note of each one. By the fifth, the gap is usually gone. By the tenth, you have a record either way.
If it still repeats
Ten pieces of work with clear, early feedback and the same gap each time means something else is going on. Capability, attention, or fit. Now it is a performance conversation, and it is a fair one, because you can show the standard, the feedback and the dates. That is very different from "she keeps making mistakes" with nothing written down.
What not to do
Do not raise your voice on the third time. Do not add a sign-off step so you can catch it yourself forever. Do not write them up before you have moved the feedback earlier. Each of those treats a timing problem as a person problem, and the mistake continues.
Where M-Tracker fits
The loop above depends on someone reading every submittal against the order the same hour, which is where busy managers fail. M-Tracker does that read before the work goes to the manager or client and tells the recruiter, in plain words, what is missing. The mistake gets caught on the piece of work in front of them, ten times in a row, which is how it stops. And the record exists if it does not.
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Questions people ask
How many times before it is a performance issue?
Count pieces of work with early, specific feedback, not weeks. Ten is a fair number.
What if the mistake is small?
Small mistakes that reach clients are not small. A missing shift line is a rejected submittal.
Should I tell the person I am doing this?
Yes. "For the next ten, I'll read each one before it goes and point at anything missing. Then you'll be catching them yourself." Most people are relieved.
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