Handling Low Performing Employees Effectively

Did you recently find yourself in that awkward position of needing to confront a poor preforming employee? This happens every day, everywhere, an employee starts to get comfortable with their surroundings and starts to take it a little easier at work. Possibly they are going through a challenging time in their own personal lives with their work life taking the hit. As a manager, you need to keep an eye out for slipping performance of an employee, once one gets hit with the slacker bug, slowly over time more employees will catch it as well. Acting fast with these simple and none damaging steps to handle these situations can return a happy employee and save you from a major office problem.

Three simple painless step to evaluate any poor performing employee:

1.       Identifying the cause
2.       Confronting the employee
3.           Redirecting their behavior

Identifying the Cause

The first instinct a manager has when they first discover a poor performing employee in the office is to react with emotion and immediately ask the employee what is wrong with them. By doing this we open it up for the employee to possibly feel attacked and could even start to slash out in defense. Regardless of your feeling in the situation you need to be able to take that step back to examine why it is that are not performing up to standards.

The first thing a manager should consider is if it a task interference is hindering the employee’s performance. Is the employee struggling with a new procedure or are they utilizing all of their available office resources, such as, tools, skills, or even managerial support?

Casually interact with employees to get a more insight look.

Employees with mediocre performance often go unnoticed in group work conditions. If the group, as a whole, is actively performing well, a poor performer or a few can hide well in side. Naturally, a supervisor would the high output of the group and assume all the employees are doing well and will praise the group as whole. This assumption can be very damaging to an office, as it gives the poor performing employee reassurance that they are able to continue with this behavior and the high performing employees of the group questioning if they need to be working as hard since their rightful earned praise goes to other undeserving of it.

 If all of these factors do not seem to fit with a particular employee, it possibly could be that the employee is struggling with personal issues. No matter how hard people try to detach work and personal life, it just seems to overflow into one another. Even when it has fallen on an employee’s personal issue to explain for the inferior performance the next two steps and still help the employee get back onto the right track.

 

Confronting the Employee

Confronting the employee is the area where most people tend to be uncomfortable with. You need to stay as relaxed as possible to ensure to the employee that it is ok for them to be as well. When getting ready to confront a poor performing employee just remember these six rules to handling the situation.

                      1) Never confront in anger: Make sure you and the employee have time to cool off before handling the situation. You never want this to become an emotional situation for either of you. If you or the employee are actively upset, suggest that the employee take a break or take the rest of the day off.

                         2) Do it immediately: After taking the time to allow all of the emotions to get into check, you need to address the situation right away. The longer you take to address the issue the worse it can become and catching it at an earlier stage can be easier to solve.

                            3) Do it in private: This doesn’t always mean to arrange a meeting in the office with the door closed as this type of setting usually initiates tension and could possibly escalate the situation. If the issue is still at the relative early stage, try casually talking about it in the break room or even during a walk down the hall together. This can reassure the employee that you are not attacking them and that you are just concerned for their performance.

Remember to only present facts and not emotions.

                          4) Be specific: Stay only in the factual range when confronting the employee. Explain them what has happened to their performance or how the behavior is effecting it. Never throw out assumptions or hearsay as this could incite arguments and defenses.

                         5) Use data: Just as you should be specific with factual information, support your assertions with data whenever possible. In the process of confronting, tell them what they have done, how you feel about their actions (concerned, disappointed, angry) and why you feel that way.
 

                       6) Be clear: Do try water-down what you are saying as this can confuse the employee. Be clear and concise when talking with them. Make sure that they understand where you two are in the conversation so not to have the problem continue.

Redirecting Their Behavior

After following both steps, you both can be on your way to a better tomorrow. To start this process, it is best to ask the employee how they feel about the situation. Listen to them as their perspective on the situation, as it could share some insight on how to move forward.

Assessing a solution together, ensuring a better tomorrow.

Once you have completely listened to how they interpret the situation, ask them to propose a solution that would allow them to get back on the right track. Having the employee think of a solution, allows the employee to take ownership for their actions rather than forcing your own solution on to them. You two can start to work out a plan together that you both agree will head both in the right direction.

Now that you and the employee have a set plan ready, the best thing for the employee is for you to now just observe the employee over a period of time. Make sure they are actively making steps to better their work performance but give them the time to reach these steps.

As you observe the employee making changes and improvements to their behavior, positively reinforce their actions by telling them what you've seen them do differently, how that makes you feel (and this time your feelings are positive) and why you feel that way. This will ensure to the employee that they are in fact going in the correct direction as plan and less likely for a relapse in poor performance.

You’ve got This

Now every poor performance issue is different but with these simple step you will be able to handle almost any kind that could arise in the workplace. You will learn to handle every issue with a calm, confident, and assertive way that will lead not only the employee on a better preforming path but the entire office as well.