Every business relies on its employees to perform their best, in order to reach targets and increase profitability. When it becomes apparent that an employee is underperforming, getting to the root cause of poor performance will help ensure that the right support is provided and avoid issues from escalating.
We have identified some of the most common problems relating to poor performance from our own experience. Each of these situations will call for different remedial actions so that support can be given to improve performance.
Lack of training
Employers don’t just hire for skill, they hire people because of a person’s attitude and soft skills that they can bring to the organisation. Afterall, skills can learned; attitude can’t.
It may be that your poor performer needs training in a particular area to help motivate them or perform better.
Lack of capability due to illness
Employee sickness can have a huge impact on performance, affecting an employees’ performance at work. This can include physical illness as well as poor mental health.
Keeping accurate absence records can assist an employer in identifying issues early on, and you should also maintain clear sickness absence policies to ensure that employees are aware of expected standards of attendance and that managers can deal with absences effectively.
It is important that employees feel comfortable talking openly to their manager about issues that might affect their ability to perform their best so that the right help can be sign posted and support given.
Lack of recognition or praise
If an employee doesn’t feel recognised for their work, it can make them feel devalued, so their effort and performance reduces as a result. Disengaged employees tend to only perform routine tasks and don’t go above or beyond because they simply aren’t getting the praise they want or deserve.
Managers should offer praise and recognition regularly and be aware that it should be rewarded on an individual basis; what’s going above and beyond for one person, may be different across your whole team.
Failing to set the right standards
Employees need to know what constitutes an acceptable level of performance, and what would be considered poor performance. The onus is on the line managers to provide a clear set of objectives as well as ‘soft’ measures that establish a clear framework from which performance can be measured.
At the end of the day, you are dealing with human beings, which means that things aren’t always predictable. Poor performance may be a result of problems at home, or it might simply be a lack of ability or training. Managing under performance means establishing open and honest dialogue so that you can get to grips with the cause of the issue and define reasonable and practical steps to improve performance.
If you need help or advice on how to effectively manage areas of poor performance within your organisation, please contact us for a consultation.
