[asuffield]

> This is mostly to provide documentation in the event of a wrongful termination suit.

While it might serve that purpose, it's primarily to make sure that middle-management takes reasonable steps to let people correct and thinks the decision through before acting. Nobody wants to work in a place where people get surprisingly or randomly fired, or where a manager is firing all the people they don't like. Having processes (mostly) prevents that sort of thing from happening.