{"id":7651,"date":"2020-02-10T11:17:34","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T16:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/?p=7651"},"modified":"2024-08-30T11:09:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T15:09:59","slug":"help-underperforming-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/help-underperforming-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Help Underperforming Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"helpThere are a lot of reasons why an employee or a team may be underperforming, and sometimes it takes a little digging to get at the root of the problem. Under-performance could be due to a skill gap, unclear expectations, or a lack of incentive to perform. It could be due to obstacles in your organization that prevent people from completing their assignments or getting their work done on time. There could be a combination of factors that would need to be addressed before being able to help underperforming employees routinely do their best work.<\/p>\n

Consequently, while your performance management process should have some consistency to avoid any discrimination, it also needs to be complex enough to account for a multitude of underlying issues. A good performance management strategy effectively corrects subpar performance because it enables employers to diagnose the cause of that performance and prescribe remedies that address it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at some common examples of performances that aren\u2019t as good as they could be or should be. For each of these examples, we\u2019ll identify the basic performance issue, highlight a few possible reasons why the issue exists, and note how you would proceed to address the performance in the situation.<\/p>\n

A new employee who isn\u2019t meeting expectations
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Amy has been on the job for three weeks, but she keeps missing deadlines and leaving tasks unfinished. These are most definitely performance issues to address right away, but how you should address them will depend on why she\u2019s not getting her job done. Here are two possibilities:<\/p>\n

Lack of Ability<\/h3>\n

She doesn\u2019t have the skills you thought she did. If that\u2019s the case\u2014whether she misrepresented those skills during the hiring process, or the interview process didn\u2019t reveal the skill gap\u2014you\u2019re within your rights to terminate her employment. (As an aside, if termination is the preferred option, consider how to adjust your hiring process to avoid the same situation for the next new hire.) If there was an honest misunderstanding about what she could do, but you\u2019re still getting some good from her, then training along with a performance improvement plan might be the better alternative.<\/p>\n

Lack of Training<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s possible that Amy didn\u2019t receive the training she was supposed to get in the first few weeks. She may not have been shown how to do the job or given adequate time to learn. Alternatively, your expectations may not have been clearly communicated. In both these cases, in addition to training or communicating expectations to Amy, it would be prudent to review your orientation and onboarding practices<\/a> to ensure that all new employees receive the resources they need to succeed in their roles.<\/p>\n

Good performer in a slump
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Amadi used to be one of your star performers \u2014 the kind of employee you could rely on to surpass his goals and encourage dedication and hard work from his colleagues. Over the past six months, however, Amadi\u2019s performance has gone downhill. He\u2019s been showing up late, missing meetings, requesting more days off, and failing to complete all his tasks on time. The quality of his work has suffered as well, and other employees have taken notice.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on? The job duties haven\u2019t changed at all, and Amadi clearly has the skills and abilities to do the work well. So, either something is preventing him from performing as he once did or he\u2019s choosing to perform poorly. Either way, you need to address his performance, but how he responds to your feedback should affect how you proceed.<\/p>\n

It could be that some personal issue is affecting Amadi\u2019s ability to perform, and if so, he may have certain rights under state and federal law. An illness in the family, for instance, could entitle him to protected leave<\/a>, depending on the circumstances. A disability might entitle him to reasonable accommodation<\/a>. Keep these rights in mind when you\u2019re working with him to improve his performance.<\/p>\n

Another possibility is that Amadi is bored. He\u2019s been doing the same thing for a few years now, and his heart just isn\u2019t in it anymore. If there are no career development opportunities at your organization that would be suitable for him and encourage him to excel, then it may be time for him to work elsewhere, and he\u2019d likely be happier for it. In any case, you can make it clear to Amadi that his performance has not been satisfactory and that he needs to improve it if he wants to stay employed.<\/p>\n

Star performer who could do even better
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Beth is one of your best employees, and you\u2019ve never had cause to complain about her performance. Nonetheless, you can\u2019t shake the feeling that Beth could do better than what she\u2019s doing. She\u2019s great relative to most of your team, but she seems to be underperforming relative to what you believe to be her potential.<\/p>\n

Clearly Beth doesn\u2019t need a performance improvement plan, but, nonetheless, working with her on her performance could be a benefit to you both. Beth is one of your stars, maybe the best in your organization, but what if she were the best in your industry? A lot of star performers\u2014whether they\u2019re professional athletes, actors, or executives\u2014have a personal coach who pushes them to excel, propels them to ever-loftier goals, and holds them accountable. Having someone take on this role (it could be you, a professional coach, or an expert in the field who is willing to act as a mentor) would give you an even greater competitive advantage and set Beth up for greater success in her career.<\/p>\n

But remember to reward<\/a> Beth for her improved performance! If Beth were to feel like you\u2019re reaping all the rewards for her now even more amazing work, she might be inclined to take her developed talents elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Lackluster team
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rob, Teddy, and Amara are team managers at your organization. You have no complaints about the team Amara oversees, but Rob\u2019s team\u2019s performance is hit or miss, and Teddy\u2019s team hasn\u2019t met their quarterly goals all year. In the latter two cases, it\u2019s possible that the unsatisfactory performances are due to one or more of the factors mentioned above, but there are other possibilities to consider when most (or all) of a team isn\u2019t meeting expectations.<\/p>\n

One likely possibility is that Rob and Teddy aren\u2019t managing their teams effectively (perhaps because they haven\u2019t been trained on how to do so). If they\u2019re not setting high-performance expectations and holding their subordinates to those expectations, their teams are unlikely to do their best work. To ascertain whether the issue is a lack of effective management, you\u2019d meet with Rob and Teddy (separately) and ask them what they do when their people aren\u2019t performing well. If all they do is give warnings or gentle reminders, their employees may have come to assume that their boss\u2019s requirements have no teeth. Good managers don\u2019t let their team get away with underperformance. They help their team members get better, and they enforce appropriate consequences\u2014potentially including termination\u2014when individuals don\u2019t improve.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible that Rob and Teddy are overworking their team or ineffectively assigning tasks. Perhaps Rob demands that all tasks and projects go through him. That arrangement might be workable if the number of assignments is small, but if workflows are getting stalled because Rob can\u2019t keep up with the amount of work coming his way, he might need to rethink how his team operates. If his team spends a good portion of their workweek waiting for him to make the next assignment, the team will look lackluster even if it\u2019s capable and willing to do much better.<\/p>\n

Other factors that can lead to underperformance include low morale, personality conflicts, bad attitudes, high turnover, communication breakdowns, lack of trust, and uncertainty due to change in the organization. Each of these can in their own way obstruct a team\u2019s ability to perform and should be considered when evaluating an underperforming team.<\/p>\n

Best Practices
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re evaluating an individual or team\u2019s poor performance, the key is not to make assumptions about what\u2019s causing it, but rather to investigate why the performance is what it is. In many cases, the issue resides fully or mostly with the employee themselves, and they\u2019ll either need to make improvements or find a better fit elsewhere. In other cases, however, the root cause of poor performance lies outside of the employee\u2019s control and improving performance may require structural changes, accommodations, or new challenges.<\/p>\n

In any event, you should begin by informing your underperforming employees that their work isn\u2019t meeting expectations and then ask them to explain why they\u2019re struggling to perform. Their answers should help you ascertain what the underlying issue is and what you may need to do to address it. And as always, document what you\u2019ve discovered and how problems are being addressed. If you ultimately decide to terminate<\/a>, solid documentation will be your best friend.<\/p>\n

isolved<\/a>, GTM’s payroll and HR platform, lets you manage performance reviews and training history, track mandated training requirements and disciplinary offenses, and improve efficiency by providing self-service tools to your staff. Let us make your HR tasks easier.\u00a0Request\u00a0a free quote today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get the most out of your workforce with these ways to help underperforming employees do their best work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[16,19,86],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-7651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-employees","tag-human-resources","tag-performance-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7651"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7659,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7651\/revisions\/7659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7651"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=7651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}