If an employee is underperforming, it can be difficult to know what to do. You may feel like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, not wanting to confront the employee but also knowing that they need to improve. This blog post will give you some tips on how to handle the situation.
The best way to get the most out of your employees is by putting them in a position where they can succeed. This isn’t always easy, but it’s worth doing if you want top-notch workers who will help take care of all aspects related to running an organization successfully from the beginning until the end! This post will give you 5 tips on how to effectively manage employees when they haven’t quite gotten there yet.
Before approaching your employee, ask yourself these questions
- Have all employees been told explicitly what you expect from them?
- Do they understand what the repercussions are from underperformance?
- Are they given regular and clear training, such as face to face, training materials, or otherwise?
- Are you confident that they understand they are underperforming?
Going through this audit will ensure that you have made the road to success very clear for your employees. And if you did not, you may have to go back and do some organizational resetting on your end to ensure this won’t be a repeating problem.
Once you have this all cleared up, go on to the next step…
Set up a performance review meeting (no distractions)
This conversation should not happen on a whim where the employee is thrown for a loop. When you’re preparing to speak with an employee, be sure that your facts and evidence are well-organized in advance. This avoids any generalizations and emotion-led conversations.
Review the employees’ job description & responsibilities
You need to make sure your employees know exactly what you expect of them and by reviewing their job description with them, you can hold them accountable to this since it was agreed upon are the time of hire. You can also provide clear standards for success that will help focus attention where it belongs: On achieving better results!
Keep in mind, sometimes new hires are uninformed about what they should be doing. For example, if the responsibilities of their position haven’t been clearly outlined during the hiring process or changed circumstances call for added requirements that confuse employees unfamiliar with the organization’s flow.
Show where their role fits into the company goals
If an employee is not performing well, it’s important that you clarify where they fit in the big picture. You can ask them if their work aligns with other team members and what this means for company goals; make sure everyone understands exactly why people do certain tasks or jobs at companies like ours–so we all know how our individual contributions affect overall success!
Creating a more holistic understanding of the company will lead to higher employee engagement.
Develop a performance action plan together
In order to improve the performance of employees, it is important that you identify causes for underperformance and strategize an action plan together with your employee. You can make suggestions on fixing problems or encouraging goals from both parties in this process as well!
The plan should incorporate several angles:\
- Outline of actions that each party is responsible for.
- Timeframe for achieving performance improvement, including potential consequences for serious issues.
- Support and resources to be provided (training/mentoring/duties adjustments/time off.)
Meet with them regularly to provide feedback and answer any questions they may have
After you’ve completed the steps above, be sure to hold yourself and your employee accountable for making progress on this plan. A great plan is only as good as its execution.
Revisit this plan occasionally to make sure progress is being made and if not, discover why and/or take action of moving forward on the next step or cutting ties with this employee.
Managing employees can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. By following these simple steps and setting up regular meetings, you can help your team reach their goals and feel appreciated. Have you tried any of these methods before? Let us know in the comments below!
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