How To Deal With Poor Employee Performance

How To Deal With Poor Employee Performance
Summary: Performance management is undoubtedly a significant part of every manager's job. The primary task of managers is to deliver high productivity by utilizing his/her team to reach its potential. Of course this is far from easy or simple. And periodically, even with effective management, motivated employees and a healthy environment, there will be some employees who are failing to meet performance expectations. At the following article you will find the top 5 tips to handle poor employee performance effectively.

How to appropriately react to poor performance is one of a manager’s biggest challenges. However, they often resist to dealing with such situations as it often leads to finger pointing, anger and denial, if not done in the right manner. Managing poor performance can raise a number of different issues in the organization, which needs to be tackled with utmost maturity and effective strategies.

Let’s look at the top 5 tips to handle change management performance in the right manner.

Top 5 Tips To Handle Poor Employee Performance Effectively

  1. Be specific with facts in hand
    It is important to confront to your employees about their respective performances. But in order to convince them about their withdrawal of lack of interest, it is imperative to have a consistent record at hand too. For instance, if the employee has been consistently late for over a period of time, specify the accurate details on the frequency and intensity of absenteeism. Make sure you do not exaggerate your statements or use harsh phrases to reduce the self-esteem of the employee. Just be direct and precise. Reiterate the guidelines accordingly.
  2. Consider the needs of your employees
    Poor performance isn't always the result of an employee's carelessness. There can be multiple genuine reasons for lack of performance and it may vary from person to person. The first is to understand the reason and judge if they’re genuine or not. Even if they’re not, do not let the other person know about it. Concentrate on their concerns and provide solutions accordingly. For example,  if your employees are not able to concentrate on their work due to some personal stress, arrange for counseling sessions and make sure they are able to get back on the track.
  3. Focus on feedback
    Everyone handles feedback differently. Although it is always recommended to be direct and clear in your communication, there can be certain strategies that you may adopt to effectively communicate your feedback. If your employee is finding difficulty in reaching his/her goals, work with him/her and provide all the necessary aids to boost performance. The best way is to provide weekly or monthly feedback to your employees, so they know what they should be doing in order to attain their goals.
  4. Provide Performance Support Technology
    When faced with existing employees who aren’t meeting expectations, it’s a smart move to offer them retraining (and/or coaching) and different resources to help them improve. As an example, you may combine an underperforming worker with someone to act as a mentor, or offer him/her a manual with procedures to follow. In addition, there are performance improvement tools –WalkMe is a very valuable technology – which can assist in a worker being more efficient and accurate, within the flow of work (and not taking them away from their daily tasks).
  5. Offer rewards and recognition
    Whenever you see your employees performing poorly, it is always better to adopt carrot and stick approach to gain instant and consistent improvement. It is a combination of rewards and punishment that you may induce for best and worst performer of weekly or monthly basis. This has proved to be one of the best ways to combat poor performance issues in companies of all types since ages.

Confronting poor performers first time may not be too encouraging for managers as well, but having a proper system to deal with them is essential, especially during change management performance. It is always better to deal with such situations, instead of ignoring them, to maintain the consistence of productivity and profitability in the business.