How to Manage Your Poor Performers
If there is one thing that every manager has in common, it’s that we’ve all dealt with employee performance issues. Every one of us has a Susan, who always does everything right and never makes a mistake. And then, we all have a Michael, who struggles to get it together. Michael’s performance problems never seem to go away and managing him can frustrate us to no end.
Because of this, we find ourselves spending more time with our poor performers out of necessity and it can be exhausting. As managers, underperforming employees take a lot out of us and they demand extra time and energy from us that we should be applying elsewhere.
So, what do we do? We can’t spend all day keeping an eye on them – we have work to do and we have other employees who need our attention. How do managers effectively address employee performance problems?
Today we will highlight some characteristics of bad performance and introduce 9 tips for identifying and addressing employee issues.
Characteristics of Poor Employee Performance
Employee performance problems can manifest themselves in a number of ways. They can take an obvious form, such as when an employee routinely has errors in his or her work. Or, they may be more subtle, as is the case when a particular employee is always noticeably late to meetings.
Here are just a few examples of employee performance issues that you might recognize:
- Repeatedly Missing Commitments
- Attendance Issues (Showing up Late, Missing Meetings, etc.)
- Communication Problems
- Difficulty Working with Others
- Excessive “Social Hour” at Work
- Poor Quality of Work
- Not Paying Attention to Details
Unfortunately, in terms of employee performance, these issues are common no matter what industry you’re in or what organization you work for. To make things more complicated, even talented workers may have blind spots and not recognize their own performance gaps.
For instance, you may have a really talented employee who simply talks too much and struggles to meet deadlines. Or, you may have an employee who delivers exceptional results, even if he or she can’t get along with others.
Thus, managing employee performance issues isn’t just about weeding out bad apples – you sometimes need to make even the good apples shine from time to time.
The Impact of Performance Issues on the Organization
Poor employee performance impacts far more than just the manager responsible for supervision.
When an employee struggles and misses deadlines at work, it can result in project delays and budget overruns. Additionally, a subpar quality of work can negatively impact your company’s reputation with your customer.
Employees, too, will feel the impact of poor performance from one of their peers. Inadvertently, highly effective employees will find themselves making up for team members who do not perform to expectation. Whether they just take on more working hours or absorb another project to make up for it, the organization will always have to work extra to account for underperforming staffers. This is not only a source of inefficiency but it’s also discouraging for your top talent.
While managers are tasked with addressing the problem, employee performance issues impact the entire organization.
The Right Way to Tackle Employee Performance Problems
Recognizing that employee concerns are detrimental to other team members and the organization as a whole, there are fortunately a number of ways to manage them.
Here are 9 tips for managing poor performance.
1. Make Sure They’re in the Right Role
Before assuming a struggling employee has “performance issues” (the politically correct way for saying they’re not making the cut), one of the first things you should do is ask yourself a simple question: “Is he/she in the right role?”
Avoid jumping to conclusions. Take some time to consider the employee’s personality, background and skill set. Remember the human element – even if an employee has had tremendous success in prior positions, there may simply be something about their current role that has pushed them outside their comfort zone. In some cases, being too far out of one’s comfort zone can actually make them ineffective.
If they’re in a developmental assignment, maybe the experiment just didn’t work. Is there a chance you’ve pushed them a little too far or too fast and you need to dial back their responsibilities? Make an honest assessment of the situation prior to labeling it as a “poor performance.” Even our best employees will struggle in roles that do not suit their unique talents.
2. Identify Barriers, Roadblocks and Causes
Though we’d love to view our employees as one-size-fits all, where all of them have the same capabilities and skill sets, it’s just not true.
Bear in mind that performance issues can stem from any number of things, some of which are not really ‘performance’ related. Everything from the physical work environment, to family matters at home that have nothing to do with work can significantly impact an employee’s ability to deliver results.
Perhaps the employee’s cubicle is located where they are regularly interrupted by others and it is these distractions that hurt their ability to make progress
Particularly if there has not been a history of concern with a given employee’s performance, try to figure out what it is that might have changed, or might have had an impact on the employee’s ability to do his or her job.
As a personal example, one of my employee’s seemed to have some “good weeks” and “bad weeks” for about a year. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, it turned out his father had been battling cancer and undergoing chemotherapy for some time – the “bad weeks” turned out to coincide with setbacks in the treatment.
The point here is to try to assess what might be happening – is it circumstantial, or performance?
3. Gather Data and Specifics
Nothing makes managing performance more difficult than when you lack details and specifics.
If you go into a coaching session with generalizations and broad observations, both you and the employee will struggle to identify ways to make improvements. Worse yet, making inaccurate statements will also erode trust between you and the employee.
Just because an employee shows up at 10AM doesn’t mean he or she is coming in late – they may have simply supported early morning meetings from home in order to get their kids ready for school.
Spend time gathering specific details of behaviors and examples of where the employee appears to be falling short (such as regularly showing up late AND not supporting early morning meetings from home). This data will ensure you are seeing a real issue and help lay the groundwork for future conversations you have with that employee.
4. Get Input from Others
No manager, no matter how good they are, can be everywhere. To this end, remember that your employees regularly interact with other managers, business leaders and employees, all of whom can serve as your eyes and ears when you’re not around.
If you have concerns over a given employee’s performance, don’t hesitate to ask for help. By periodically soliciting input from trusted colleagues, you can gain different perspectives on the employee’s performance in a variety of settings. Be sure to gather input from multiple sources so that you can make a balanced assessment.
Lastly, if seeking input from the employee’s peer, make sure you do so with care, so you don’t put either employee in an awkward situation.
5. Set Very High Standards
Setting high standards for your team tends for drive a ‘sink or swim’ behavior.
When you have an employee who seemingly does the bare minimum, it may be because they legitimately don’t want to go above and beyond, or wow anyone with their contributions. But it might also be the result of not feeling challenged and not feeling they need to do much in order to meet the objectives you’ve set for them. In other words, they do what you ask, but nothing more.
A simple test of this is to load them up and give them a higher workload, almost too much. Increasing workload can help correct performance issues because it forces the employee to improve their efficiency, buckle down, and focus.
Do they rise to the challenge, or continue at the same pace?
If the employee rises to the challenge, perhaps their performance issues are the result of boredom or simply not feeling challenged. Conversely, if he or she struggles, the performance issues are probably real.
As a personal example, a former colleague of mine tended to set low, un-challenging expectations for her employees. While her direct staff loved working for her, there was a general lack of urgency among her employees, and a trend of missed commitments by her team.
6. Be Real with Feedback
If you are sure your observations are truly employee performance related, any further action needs to start with feedback. No need to jump out of the gate swinging with excessively critical feedback, but an honest conversation about your observations or concerns is warranted.
Start by asking the employee how things are going and if they have any issues or challenges they’re facing.
The key to holding effective feedback sessions is to get the employee to speak first and to have them share their perspective of how they are doing before you share any concerns or observations. Steer the dialog by asking questions that broach the topic of performance.
RELATED: Coaching Employees Through Questions
Always remember to hold feedback sessions in private – doing so in public will never be received well by the employee, or by those in the area. Plus, by holding coaching sessions in private, you are more likely to get the employee to open up and talk about any issues or concerns they have that may be impacting their ability to deliver results.
GET OUR FREE DOWNLOADS: One On One Coaching Guide and Templates HERE
7. Take Time to Define Very Specific Expectations
More than likely, your top performers need very little direction. Of course, from time to time they may need guidance and support. But in general, high performers know what to work on and know where they should be spending time, even without you telling them.
By contrast, we spend a lot of our time managing our lower performers. We often need to verify they’re working on the right things and to make sure they’re going to meet an upcoming deadline. For these reasons, spend time setting very clear expectations with your more difficult employees from the start.
Here are some tips for setting expectations with an employee:
- Define the task’s objective, goal or final output.
- Identify where this task ranks in priority compared to their other responsibilities.
- State what you expect to see at the end – a document, a report, a spreadsheet, etc.
- Ask how they might approach the activity to ensure they clearly understand what you are asking.
- State how much time you think this will take – a day, a week, a month – to clearly identify the level of effort.
- Define dates for the final result, as well as check points along the way.
- Document the conversation – a simple ‘recap’ email is often enough.
Clearly documenting individual goals and expectations helps you set the stage for a follow-up conversation as you check on progress. The more specific you get in terms of things like dates, timelines and quality standards of their work reduce and eliminate any ambiguity.
8. Follow Up Frequently
If there is one thing that sends a clear message to an employee that their performance is a concern, it is your frequent follow-ups to check on status.
For example, if you give them a deadline of Wednesday to complete a report, be sure to follow-up with your employee on Wednesday. Don’t wait until Thursday or the next week to make sure the report went out.
By following up and checking in on commitments, it shows you mean business and drives accountability. By contrast, if you set expectations, but do not follow up, the employee may not feel there is really a need to change their behavior.
9. Formally Document Concerns
When your efforts to assess performance gaps and motivate employees to improve don’t get the results you’re looking for, it’s time to start documenting performance issues.
Unlike a blatant violation of company policy or misconduct, terminating employees simply due to performance can be difficult because it often requires a significant amount documentation.
Therefore, if you’re at the point where things just aren’t improving, it may be time to capture everything in a formal letter of concern to the employee. The details and specifics that serve as the foundation for your concern need to be clear.
Formally documenting performance issues will get the employee’s attention – and if things still do not improve, there will be a record in support of termination.
Managing Employees Who Do Not Perform
Staff performance issues exist in every organization. When an employee fails to meet expectations, it is both frustrating and difficult for managers to remedy the situation. However, by ensuring the employee is in the right role, verifying expectations are clear and providing fact-based feedback, it is possible to address performance concerns.