Addressing Poor Performance
Michael Robinson
Heidi Struthers (Harman)
Zoua Xiong
Management 129
Professor O'Neill
Wednesday 8 AM
Table of contents
What is Poor Performance?
A. Definition of Poor Performance.
B. What are the signs of poor performance?
C. What are the causes of poor performance?
The effects of poor performance.
A. Effects of poor performance in the work place.
B. Effects of poor performance on the employee.
C. Effects of poor performance in the legal environment.
Ways to address poor performance.
A. Mistakes in addressing poor performance.
B. Steps to resolving poor performance .
C. The after-effects.
What is poor Performance?
Poor Performance...What is it?
Poor performance can mean different things to different companies. The basic way of looking at poor performance is an employee who is not performing to the standards that are set up for his/her particular job; or they are not doing that which is required by a contract.
Signs of Poor performance
There are many signs for employers to look for. Poor performance can be identified as things such as long breaks, absenteeism, carelessness, missed deadlines, poor employee relations, or ignoring rules.
What causes it?
There are many factors that can cause poor performance. Some of the most common factors are as follows:
Employees don't know what to do. One of the main reasons that employees perform at a level that is lower than that which is expected is because they do not know that they are doing. Many companies do not have policies in place to notify employees that they are working at sub-par levels. Performance appraisal programs are non-existent. Many times if an employee is told they are not doing as well as they are supposed to, they will improve their work and get themselves on track.
Poor Training. Poor training can be a factor that causes poor performance. Yogi Berra, a very famous baseball player, once said, "If you don't know where you're going, then any place is fine". When there is a lack of training in the workplace, employees do not know what they are doing so they just keep on doing what they feel they should, even if it is the wrong thing. This gets pointed out as poor performance because the employee is not doing their job the right way.
Lack of recognition for work well done.
Not getting enough recognition for doing a good job causes people to work at lower standards. When people are not appreciated for the long hours they put into their jobs, the attitude of “why should I work this hard if nobody cares and I don't get noticed” set in. Once employees get this attitude, the quality of work done drops as does the output of this employee. Not getting compensated at a rate that is deserved will also cause that employee to work at a lower level than what he/she is capable of.
"Why work hard if you are not getting paid to!"
Personal issues. Many employees often bring their personal life with them to work. Personal issues such as substance abuse, family problems, and physical health can affect the way that an employee works. If employees do not have their mind on the job, they cannot work at the level they are capable of. This is a serious issue, especially when the workers are working in hazardous conditions where they can, not only hurt themselves, but others too.
Stress. A lot of people, especially managers, feel that stress is a lame excuse for not performing up to par, but it has been scientifically proven that stress level leads to many things, one of them being poor performance.
A stressful job causes the employees performing that job to not care about the work they are doing. They just want to get what ever the work is that they are doing done, so that they can go home and forget about it.
Job Dissatisfaction. Many times when an employee is not satisfied with their job, either because of working conditions, management, or coworkers, they lower their performance to show their disgust. When an employee has low morale at their job, they feel as if they should not try to do their best, especially if they are not going to be there very long.
Poor Performance of coworkers. The thought of “why should I bust my butt and share the credit with those who are along for the ride” goes through many employees' minds. When an employee notices that other coworkers are getting away with doing less than what is required, they may lower their standards and perform at a lower level also.
Medical problems. Medical problems such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) leads employees to perform at levels that are below standard. ADD causes a lack of concentration and these employees find it hard to pay attention to the work that they are doing. Not addressing these issues when first noticed will lead to the employee being off task and staying at a level that is below what is expected.
The Effects of Poor Performance
What are the effects? Poor performance in the workplace has many complications to the company. Mostly, it has to do with time and money. Poor performance in one department can impact many other aspects of the company.
Effect on company. It is very costly to make mistakes with a product or a service. A poor performer can make serious mistakes while making a product, which will create a lot of unnecessary waste. Unless the behavior is corrected, the company will continue to lose money on wasted products.
If the company is a service provider, they may have to perform repeat services because it was not performed right the first time. This is very time consuming and expensive! These costly mistakes will also have a long-term effect by decreasing the quality of the product/service and destroying a company's good reputation.
The work environment. Poor performance can have a very negative effect in the work place. Working conditions are most crucial in employee productivity. A place where employees are comfortable working and feel that they are part of a team will yield better performances. When an employee is performing badly, the effect is filtered out to all those around him/her. It will cause conflicts among employees because one person does not want to be doing all the work alone.
Bad performances will also have a devastating effect in decrease morale. Morale is one of the most important factors in a company. It can affect other aspects such as productivity, grievances, costs, how well people are willing to work together. Because morale is composed of the company performing as a whole, if some employees are doing badly, it breaks down the team effort and people don't feel that they are part of the team anymore.
Effects on the poor performer. Often times, the employee did not even realize that he/she was performing badly. Almost 40% of all employees feel that they belong in the top 10%. When the poor performer is finally confronted, they may be aggressive at first because they may not feel that they are performing poorly. They might be embarrassed, confused, or angry.
Although the employee may be feeling down at the beginning, the positive effect of this would be that once a problem is recognized, ways to resolve the problem could be sought out and implemented. Improving a deficient skill could open a lot of doors for an employee.
The legal environment. Defective products or services produced or provided by employees who were not properly trained or were just performing badly could prove to be a great legal burden for the company. Litigation could result if a company unknowingly sells a product that was produced by an incompetent employee and the product harms the consumer in any way. Something as small as forgetting to put a screw into a product could result in multimillion dollar lawsuits. Because one small thing could have such a huge effect on the company, addressing poor performance should be one of the highest priorities.
Taking the time to effectively correct one employee's bad performance can save the company millions of dollars. The legal environment is one that companies must manage wisely because it can cost them dearly.
Litigation regarding employees. When addressing poor performance, written evaluations are extremely important. In some cases, it will serve as evidence. There are cases where an employee who has been terminated due to poor performance sues the company and is awarded damages. When an employee was not aware that he/she was performing badly and a company terminates them without giving them an opportunity to improve, legal litigation could be the result.
A company must always make sure that employees are aware of performance standards. The evaluations must always be accurate. You cannot give an employee a good evaluation and then terminate them based on bad performance. The employee must also have access to the evaluation and be given an opportunity to improve. If the process is not carried out properly, the effect could be costly.
Addressing an employee's poor performance
Addressing Poor Performance
Unsolved disciplinary issues can have a negative impact in a number of ways:
 There is the possibility of direct monetary costs to the company.
 There can be a loss in customers.
 Work bottlenecks may be created.
 Employees will become irritable if they are pulling others' weight.
To combat these problems, poor performance must be promptly resolved.
One of the most common mistakes is to avoid dealing with poor performance. Most people don't welcome conflict because it is a lot easier to avoid it. On the other hand, avoiding a conflict will result in greater frustration.
Catching the Problem Early. Addressing a problem in the early stage provides an opportunity for intervention, coaching and counseling. Signs of developing problems may include:
 Declining performance.
 Increased complaining/ more grievances.
 Interpersonal conflicts.
 Difficulty accepting constructive feed back.
 Behavior that has a negative impact on the work group.
If these warning signs are ignored or not noticed the problem will become more serious and harder to address.
Next Step. Once the problem is noticed, you should ask the following questions before addressing the situation to the employee.
 Did the employee know and understand the rule that was broken or the procedure that was not followed; was the employee warned of possible disciplinary consequences? Was the rule clearly outlined in the employee manual or policy guidelines, along with details about company response if the rule is not followed? Can you document that the employee was aware of this rule?
 Was a fair and objective investigation conducted to determine whether the employee actually violated the rule? Make sure that you don't act upon second hand information or “rumor” in reprimanding the employee.
 Has the company applied rules, procedures, and penalties fairly and consistently to all employees?
Don't open yourself up to legal liability.
Past History of Employee
You must also review the employee's past history to determine the length of service and past performance. Compare the employee's situation with other similar situations that have occurred. Were they treated the same? Did the discipline help improve their performance?
Using Performance evaluations as a tool. Performance evaluations should serve as a tool to help assess and resolve deficient skills. There are some criterions in creating a useful evaluation. One of the most critical one is letting the employees know exactly what is expected of them. They must always be aware of the standards that they are subject to. The evaluation must always be objective. It must refer to data instead of personal insights. Number of days absent, minutes late to work, count of products wasted, etc. would be examples of objective data. Subjective insights would include stating “you're not performing to the level that we hope you would” without any specific examples.
To be fair to an employee during an evaluation, the employer should give some warning that evaluations are coming up. Some companies even have set cycles, like once a year for every employee. The employer must also review past evaluations to get a sense of the employee's past performances. After the evaluation, the employer should set up goals and timeline in which specific goals should be met. Don't just tell an employee that they are performing badly and then don't guide them on how to improve. Establish dates and deadline when you will be re-reviewing the employee's performance. A post-evaluation meeting should be set up so that you can keep track of how the employee is improving and if he/she has any questions, you can address them.
References
Boyle, M. (2001, May 28) “Perilous curves ahead” Fortune, 143(11), 187-188.
Carter-McNamara, PhD (2001) “Basics in addressing employee performance problems” [online] Available: http://www.mapnp.org [2001].
Clifford, J. (1999, Spring) “Mentoring and coaching employees” HR Focus, 78(9), 119.
Cochnour, D. (2000) “Staffing performance goals” Serial Review, 26(2), 1-2.
“Employees and ratings” (1997, October) Journal of Accountancy, 184(4), 4.
Garron, R. (2001, February 12) “Taking action on poor performance” InfoWorld, 23(7), 69.
Mavis, M. (1994, October) “Painless performance evaluations” Training and Development, 48(10), 40.
Painter, C. (1999, June) “Ten steps for improved appraisals” Supervisors, 60(6), 11-13.
Russell, S. (1999, May/June) “People performance” Journal of Compensation and Benefits, 14(6),21-25.
Sketch, E. (2001, September) “Mentoring and coaching employees” HR Focus, 78(9), 1-11.
US Office of Personnel Management “Addressing poor performance” [online] Available: http://www.opm.gov [2001, October 28].
Varhol, P. (2000, June 6) “Preparing for your performance review” Electronic Design, 48(13), 183.
|