Possible causes of performance issues
Role description
Ask yourself: Is the role description fair and accurate?
Sometimes roles and descriptions aren't quite right. If the role doesn’t reflect what you’re asking your employee to do, it’s hard for them and doesn't help your business.
The role description needs to be:
- fair in terms of capacity – make sure you haven’t asked for more than a person can do in the given time
- fair in terms of capability – make sure you haven’t asked them to do some very difficult tasks or solve some hard problems, beyond the capability required for the rest of the role
- an accurate reflection of what they're actually being asked to do day-to-day – you shouldn't judge them on something they didn’t sign up for.
If the role description isn't fair and accurate, consider revising it with the agreement of the employee. Jobs can change and evolve over time, and big changes need to be built into the role description.
Clear and reasonable expectations
Ask yourself: Have I been clear about what I expect?
Setting clear expectations helps keep your business on track and your workers focused. Be very clear about what you expect.
Without that, it could look like the person is underperforming when they don’t have the information they need from their manager. Or it could be a simple case of misunderstanding or miscommunication on your part.
Ask yourself: Is what I expect reasonable?
When you need a job done and ask someone to do it, there may be times when the task is beyond that person’s capability.
Being reasonable about what you ask workers to do keeps them motivated performing well. Help your staff develop skills with a balance of tasks they can complete easily and tasks that challenge them to grow.
To get an informed idea of what’s reasonable, talk to:
- others who have worked in this role or similar roles
- people who have managed someone in a role like this before.
Feedback
Ask yourself: Have I given clear and motivating feedback?
Good communication is important, and feedback is essential. Encourage good performance by helping your team evolve in the right ways.
You can’t expect someone to change their behaviour or improve if you don't tell them what they're doing well and not so well. Point out the areas you see as underperformance, and help them figure out a better way.
Training
Ask yourself: Have they been given the training they need?
Some qualifications or skills are conditions of getting the job. Others are more related to the role and the way your business does things.
If someone seems to be underperforming, it might be they haven’t received all the training they need. Think about buddying them up with someone else at work to show them the ropes.
Life’s challenges
Sometimes an employee underperforms because they are going through some challenges in their personal life.
Don’t make any assumptions of what they may need or want in terms of support through a tough time, but you can share some tools with them to help them decide:
- how much of their personal challenge they want to share with you
- what, if any, adjustments you could make at work to support them through a difficult time in their life.
Tools
Ask yourself: Do they have the tools they need?
One of the best things you can do to encourage great performance is make sure workers have the tools they need to do their jobs well.
Listen to your employee. Find out if what you see as underperformance is caused by not having the right tools. You might need to get them the tools or show them how they can work without them.
Business structure
Ask yourself: Is my business set up for good employee performance?
When a problem seems linked to an underperforming employee, think about whether your business structure is contributing.
This means reflecting on:
- the number of people in your team
- what those people are responsible for
- whether the roles they’re working in set your business up for success.
What looks like an ineffective team member could be someone performing well in a role that is no longer serving your business goals. If that's the case, consider a restructure.
Restructuring could mean:
- reducing the number of people employed in your organisation
- rewriting job descriptions
- training an employee to take on a different role
- aligning roles more closely with your business goals.
To help figure out if a role isn’t serving your business well, do a gap analysis. Write down:
- the outcomes or outputs you expect from this role
- your business goals.
Check if there’s a gap between what you want to get from this role and what your business is aiming for. If there is, you might need to:
- change the role to suit your goals
- restructure your team.
If the role and your business goals already line up well, it’s possible the employee isn’t being properly supported to perform well.
Consider the way you’re leading your staff when looking into underperformance.
Problematic job description
Sally works on a factory line, filling soda bottles. Sally has also been asked to help out in the lab when they are short-handed, doing quality assurance testing on the product. That's not in her role description though, and requires a really different skill set.
If someone is underperforming
Under employment law, all interactions and agreements between employers and employees are underpinned by good faith. If you're confident you're doing everything you need to do to support your employee, but they’re still underperforming, you have a decision to make.
Team restructuring
If the person is a good cultural fit, and has good skills in other areas, you can try and find them another role in the team. Check if they want to stay and they agree to you revising their employment agreement.
Make sure you understand the legal requirements around how to restructure fairly.
Formal performance management
If team restructuring is not an option, it's probably time to start formal performance management. This includes creating a performance management plan.
Make sure you follow the correct process and approach this in a fair and reasonable way.
Performance management plan
A performance management plan is a process for what you’ll do if an employee is not performing at an acceptable level. In most cases, having regular performance appraisals and informal catch ups with your team will be enough to keep up performance.
Knowing in advance what steps you need to take means you can act quickly to help your employee get back on track.
Creating a new role
Anahera owns a small bakery with a team of six employees. The business has a drop in revenue, and Anahera gets frustrated that her delivery driver Brendan often seems to be standing around with nothing to do.
Brendan has been a valued part of the team since Anahera first started the bakery, and she doesn’t want to lose him.
Steps to manage poor performance
- Step01
Identify the issues
Start by clarifying what the issues are.
- Check the employee’s job description to confirm the agreed performance standards.
- Check the clause in their employment agreement about poor performance.
- Identify where they are failing, meeting and exceeding expectations.
- Think about any training or support they’ve had, or anything extra you could provide to improve their performance.
Don’t mistake inexperience for underperformance. A person can take time to get up to speed in a new role.
- Step02
Arrange a meeting
Request a meeting with your employee.
The meeting request should:
- be in writing – an emailed meeting invite is acceptable
- say that the reason for the meeting is to discuss performance
- say that the employee can bring a support person with them to the meeting.
- Step03
Meet with the employee
At the meeting:
- discuss the employee’s overall performance
- outline the areas of concern, relating it to the agreed standards in their job description
- allow them to respond
- consider any contributing factors – for example, personal issues or whether they think they haven’t had sufficient training.
After discussing the issues, agree:
- what the acceptable standards will be going forward
- what needs to happen for your employee to achieve them, including what training or support you’ll provide
- when you’ll meet again to review their performance – around two months should be about right.
You should also let them know what the potential impact will be if they don’t meet the agreed acceptable standard – for example, you may issue a formal warning.
After the meeting, document the performance agreement. Put a copy in the employee’s personnel file and give a copy to the employee for their reference.
- Step04
Track their progress
During the period between the first meeting and the review, document anything related to the employee’s performance – for example, any training or support you provide, dates when performance is particularly good or not up to standard.
- Step05
Meet to review progress
Set up the follow-up meeting for the agreed date. Again, you should do this in writing, and let the employee know they can bring a support person with them.
At the meeting, review:
- if the employee has met the agreed performance standards
- if there are any areas still needing improvement
- the significance of any areas still needing to improve.
Based on the review, you can:
- agree performance has improved to an acceptable level and take no further action
- repeat the performance management process until performance is acceptable
- issue a formal warning in line with the disciplinary process.
Document the outcome of this meeting. Put a copy in your employee’s personnel file and give them their own copy.
Common mistakes
Be aware of these common mistakes when managing poor performance:
- Not recording the outcomes of the meeting or sharing them with your employee – this is important to make sure you’re on the same page.
- Not documenting performance between the initial meeting and the review meeting – you need to have evidence if they’re not improving, and that you’ve done what you said you would.
- Not providing the support or training your employee needs to do their job properly.
- Not allowing them to, or forgetting to tell the employee that they can bring a support person to meetings to discuss their performance.
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