Companies who understand the importance of managing underperformance in the workplace and address the same in appropriate and timely manner are shown to benefit from higher staff morale and motivation. The essential step toward this is an effective performance management system that will lead to happier, more motivated and better performing staff.
Employers who understand the importance of managing under performance in the workplace are shown to benefit from much higher staff morale and motivation.
In order to establish an effective performance management plan, it is essential for employers to understand what underperformance is. Any of the following can be deemed as underperformance: unacceptable behaviour that impacts the colleagues, not complying with workplace rules, policies or procedures and unsatisfactory work performance as required by the particular role. It is also important to distinguish the difference between misconduct and underperformance as misconduct is a more serious behaviour such an assault or theft that can normally lead to instant dismissal.
Also important to understand is the reasons why an employee can would perform poorly. Some of these include employee’s unawareness of what exactly is expected from them in the job, personal differences with his or her colleagues, WORKPLACE BULLYING, mismatch between worker’s capabilities and the duties, lack of training or personal motivation or personal and other issues at home.
Dealing with underperformance can be challenging and addressing it promptly is important as many workers may not realise that they are not performing to the satisfactory level. Not having the performance management system or not following the existing disciplinary process will also impact the motivation of other co-workers who will all too easily fall into the mentality of reduced moral and deliberate underperformance. No every underperformance needs to be treated using the same existing and structured process; it can sometimes be done through continued feedback.
Now that we defined the underperformance and examined some of the causes and side effects of poor performance in the workplace, let us discover some of the best ways to manage insufficient performance. It is clear that early performance management is important for both the business and the employees so here are the 5 steps toward better underperformance management in the workplace.
1. Identify the issue – it is crucial to properly and correctly spot the key drivers of performance and help those identify poor performing employees.
2. Analyse the problem – assess the seriousness and the length of time the problem existed. Also find out how wide is the gap between the expected and the actual performance of the employee. During this step, a meeting with an employee should be organised and its purpose clearly communicated to the worker.
3. Meeting with the employee – this session is to jointly discuss what the problem is, why it is a problem and how this issue impacts on the overall organisation.
4. Devise a solution that both parties are satisfied with. This should include immediate, specific and measurable action plan toward the performance improvement.
5. Monitor performance – setup regular meetings at which performance improvement can be tracked and further adjustments made. These review meetings should include a continual feedback.
If all the avenues for the performance improvement have been exhausted, it is possible for an employer to terminate the worker’s employment. This is an acceptable option as long as the circumstances leading to the termination were not unjust or unreasonable.
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