Are You Dealing With Underperforming Employees?
When employees underperform, a company is unable to operate to its full potential. In best-case scenarios, it will lose revenue. In worst-case scenarios, the business will not be sustainable and will fold.
It is your responsibility, as the employer, to address lackluster performance when you become conscious of it. This could prevent activities from being disrupted and possibly prevent resentment from growing among other staff.
As a result, you must understand what constitutes bad performance and how to deal with underperforming employees.
What is meant by poor performance?
- Failure to carry out the responsibilities of their position.
- Failure to do their duties to the standard you expect of them.
- Make sure that you do not conflate poor performance with poor behavior.
What is causing the poor performance?
Managing underperformance will have you asking questions of both your employee and your company.
Is there a line manager or supervisor for the underperforming employee? If so, you could ask them the following questions, which you should also ask yourself:
- Have you set clear expectations for your employee’s role?
- Have you provided your staff with adequate training to enable them to do their duties?
- Could their workload be too much for them?
- Have you hired the incorrect person?
- Are there any personal variables influencing your employee and preventing them from performing at the level required to achieve your expectations?
- Is management-employee communication effective enough to help your employee do the role?
- Could there be a motivation issue, such as the employee wishing to be compensated more for their role?
How to approach a poorly-performing employee
Before you go too official, a casual conversation with your underperforming employee may be all that is required to get them back on track. During the talk, try to be compassionate and see the situation from their point of view.
If your company has separate teams with line managers and supervisors, you should consider involving your employee’s line manager in this talk. Because they work on the same team, your employee and the line manager are more likely to have a closer relationship.
Finish your conversation with a suggestion for improvement and a reminder to your employee to address any problems they have about their workload,
What if a casual conversation does not work?
Then it is necessary to escalate the situation to a formal meeting to discuss their capabilities. Invite your staff to a meeting to discuss their performance in writing. Depending on the industry you work in, you might want to look at urine testing to ensure they are not taking anything that could affect their performance.
You must have a professional demeanor during the meeting. Avoid a confrontational tone—after all, you want to get the most out of your employee, which means you must encourage them.
Ascertain that they are aware of the following by the end of this meeting:
- What you expect them to do in their position.
- Your thoughts on their most recent performance.
- The difference between their current performance and the performance you expect from them.
- Agree on (and approve in writing) an action plan outlining the improvements you require. Clarify a deadline—on that day, you will get down together and evaluate their performance. Their deadline should be reasonable—allow your staff enough time to improve their performance.
If you want to provide additional training or support to your employee in order to help them realize their full potential, you should include it in the action plan.
Make it plain to your employee (again, in writing) what will happen if their performance does not improve. If they are likely to receive a capability warning, you must notify them.