Struggling with an underperforming employee? Don’t ignore it – here’s what you can do.

Performance issues can be a challenge for any business, however, in larger companies there are a team of people so an underperforming employee may go unnoticed.  In a small team the impact will be immediate, missed deadlines, unhappy customers and extra pressure on the rest of the team.  Underperformance can feel like a minefield to navigate, you can’t afford to ignore it, you may not want to lose them and you don’t want to damage morale.  The good news is with the right approach you can turn things around before it becomes a bigger issue, read on to find out how.

Firstly, lets look at why it is important to get it right.  This recent story hit the headlines with an employee taking their employer to tribunal for unfair dismissal and winning a substantial award even when it appears there was good reason to dismiss.  An employee working as a social media content producer had only produced 2 pieces of work in 3 months and in addition had made numerous mistakes.  In contrast a colleague, over the same period, produced 73 posts.  The Company in question had noted concerns previously but had failed to address them.  A new manager had put performance improvement plans (PIP) in place, which the employee had failed on 3 occasions leading to dismissal.

Although, a brief overview you may be thinking, the dismissal seems reasonable.  It was, the judge in the tribunal stated that there was no prospect of the claimant turning her performance around and that she was aware her job was on the line.  However, they still awarded £22,210.75 in compensation for unfair dismissal.  The reason, they failed to follow their own policy and issue formal warnings after the failure of the PIP’s.

There can be several reasons why an employee could be underperforming.  In the case outlined above the employee had a number of personal issues to deal with and this is a common cause of performance issues, our personal lives just don’t stop affecting us when we get to work.  Other causes can be lack of clarity over what is expected, skills gaps and disengagement.

So how should you address underperformance? 

you need to have a conversation with your employee and find out what the root cause is and this needs to be done as soon as the issues start to become a reoccurring theme.  We all mistakes and of course if it is a one off, in what is generally a good performing employee, then it is likely there is nothing to worry about.   When the same pattern repeats itself and don’t it and hope it will get better by itself. 

You will need to prepare for the conversation with the employee, this will be an informal conversation and whilst you may have consulted an HR professional for guidance, at this stage generally there is no need for HR to be involved.  Booked in a time to talk to your employee, book a space where you can have a confidential conversation and reassure them you want to help. Ask them if they are OK, discuss your concerns in a factual non-judgemental manner with examples and ask them how you can help.

Once you have established what the issue is, you can then decide how to move forward. If the issue is a personal one then it may be you can put some adjustments in place to support.  These might include reduced hours or more flexible start and finish times, this is dependant on what the issue is.  If it is a lack of clarity so the employee doesn’t understand what it expected, this will require very clear instructions, deadlines and check in points to ensure the tasks are on track and accurate.  There may be skills gaps which will require training, mentoring, or on the job support.  Identify what the gap is and how it can be addressed.  Or your employee may be disengagement, you will need to identify why.   Do they feel undervalued, bored in the job, overwhelmed or some other reason. 

Set a clear plan, you will need to be very specific about the improvement you expect to see and when.  If you have identified that adjustments or training are needed, outline when this will happen and what it is.  Make sure you put them in place.

You must hold follow up meetings to check in with your employee and monitor progress.  It is a good idea to put PIP’s in place for 3 months, this allows enough time for improvements and for training to be implemented.  You can review and extend as needed or if there is no improvement proceed to formal action.

PIP’s are often seen in a negative light and it is assumed that they are put in place in order to dismiss an employee.  Often if issues are left and not tackled, managers can feel frustrated and make assumptions about why an employee is underperforming.  Having a conversation is key to determining the cause and then deciding on the appropriate action.  If you have committed to supporting your employee with training or support, then do it.  Using a PIP should be viewed as a support tool, where both sides have clearly outlined their actions, their accountabilities, timelines and next steps.  Both parties need to work together to make it successful.

Lastly, follow your policy!  If you have written down a process, follow it.  When to ask HR for help?  At the start, an HR professional can coach you through the process to ensure that the conversation you have with your employee is a constructive one, they can help you set the PIP to make sure it is fair and realistic.  Need help with an underperforming employee contact me at bev@bdhr.co.uk to book a call to discuss.