Poor performance plagues every kind of workplace. Small, medium and corporate businesses alike experience problems with people. These people turn in incomplete work, drag down morale or spark the all-avoidable “spot fires” that managers are constantly running around and putting out. It’s bad for your team, long-term and medium-term planning and more importantly, your bottom line.
There are four main reasons why small to medium business find it difficult to address poor performance:
- A smaller, tightly-knit team built on highly personal relationships. There’s little to no professional distance between the manager and employee, it makes a conversations about performance that much more difficult.
- No underlying HR framework. There’s simply nothing to refer to when it comes to these situations.
- The business is unsure on how to proceed with addressing performance, if at all, and;
- Uneasiness about getting hit with an unfair dismissal claim.
Sometimes the knee-jerk reaction in the manager’s office is: “can’t we just get rid of them?”
Like most things in life, it’s not that simple. If you’re waiting for the part that gives you the silver bullet – don’t hold your breath. There are no quick fixes when it comes to managing employee performance. If you get a bit fast and are haphazard with your process, you might see yourself before FairWork.
To manage under performance, here are some tips
- When you realise there is an underperformance issue, address it immediately.
- Ensure that you follow your procedures.
- Set up a meeting with the employee outlining the reasons for the meeting.
- Inform the employee they are able to have a support person with them at the meeting
- Enable your employee to respond to the issues raised.
- Document all discussions.
If you would like to view a more detailed presentation on managing underperformance, please following the link below.
