An Introduction To Managing Underperformance and Performance Management
Pure Human Resources Ltd
Award-winning HR, Recruitment and Training experts, established in 2012: delivering excellence in everything people.
The Challenges of Managing People – Managing Underperforming Staff
What is managing underperformance?
Managing underperformance is when you take action to deal with an individual or team that is not performing to the expected standards. The goal is to improve performance to the required standard.
If you’ve heard or even used the phrase ‘performance managing someone out of the business,’ then the first thing to note is that Performance Management is actually about maintaining and improving employee performance – it is not just another way of saying ‘we’re going to get rid of you’! In fact, having invested time and money in employing someone, it makes sense that your first steps should be to try and improve performance to the desired level.
Why is managing underperformance in the workplace important?
Managing underperformance is important because failure to do so will be damaging for your business and will undermine your hard work. If a member of your team is not performing as they should, it could have a negative impact on overall productivity as well as the morale and motivation of the rest of the team.?The prospect of tackling it and having to broach the subject with an individual may be daunting but avoiding the issue will be far more detrimental in the long run.
How is performance management different from performance appraisal?
Performance Appraisals are part of an ongoing process that should be carried out with all employees as a means of monitoring and evaluating performance. This usually involves some kind of formal annual appraisal meeting with individuals but should also allow for regular feedback and evaluation throughout the year. For more on performance appraisals, read our Introduction to Performance Appraisals post.
Performance management on the other hand is used when underperformance has been identified, as a way to bring performance up to a required level.
How do you manage underperforming employees?
Understand the reasons behind underperformance
There are many reasons why an employee could be underperforming. Understanding these reasons will be key to tackling and hopefully resolving them.
Reasons for underpeformance could include:
First, try to resolve the issue informally through additional support and discussion:
Providing additional training, mentoring or coaching could help to close a skills and knowledge gap
Sometimes health issues are apparent through an increase in sickness absence. Absence management processes can be used to deal with high levels of sickness absence.
Some individuals however may continue to attend work even when they are not able to perform properly, through fear of not getting paid, or getting sacked – known as presenteeism. It’s important to ensure that employees feel they can be open and honest with their employer about any issues. Presenteeism may be an indicator of other underlying issues around company culture or management, which need to be dealt with.?We can provide support with actions and recommendations to improve company culture and communication, if this is an issue for you.
Other actions that can be taken include providing employees with access to an EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) or accessing Occupational Health services.?To understand whether using Occupational Health could help you, read our resource ‘Why use an Occupational Health service provider'.
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If underperformance is down to the individual simply not wanting to do the work, open and honest discussion may help identify factors that could improve motivation. Adding in new tasks or responsibilities may make a role more interesting.
However if informal action does not resolve the underperformance, then a more formal approach is required in the form of a Performance Management Plan or Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).
What is a performance management plan or PIP?
A PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) or Performance Management Plan is a structured plan designed to help an individual improve their performance, with a deadline by which a specified standard should be reached.
It should include a set of SMART goals and ideally should provide guidance on the steps required to achieve those goals.?It should also specify any additional training or resource requirements needed and provision should be made for the individual to acquire these.
A Performance Improvement Plan should include regular opportunities for discussion and review.
For support with performance management or creating a PIP, contact us.
How long does performance management take?
“I’ve heard performance management can take months and months…!” – this is rarely the case and the sooner you start on the performance management journey the better. (From our experience, cases of underperformance rarely go away on their own and just continue to fester if not dealt with.)
When setting a deadline for a PIP, the timeframe must reasonable based on the improvements required however it doesn’t need to be excessive.
It will likely be apparent early on if the individual is keen to show improvement or not.
It is, in fact, very unusual to have to go through the whole performance management process. In many cases, if it is obvious that the individual doesn’t want to / can’t change and they can see you are being regular and consistent with feedback, they often decide to find alternative employment. In the current market, this can happen pretty quickly.
The best advice we can give is get started, keep a diary or logged account of the conversations you have so that you can start to build up an audit timeline and keep on top of this… so if you tell the employee you are going to carry out a review in four weeks, book it in the diary immediately so it actually happens.
Does performance management include disciplinary action?
Not necessarily. Ideally, by following the Performance Improvement Plan, the individual will reach the required standards and you will both be able to move forward positively.
However, if an employee continues to underperform despite the intervention, then it is possible that further action would be required and ultimately it is possible, and acceptable, to terminate employment – but only after the correct procedures have been followed. We would always recommend seeking advice from an HR professional in these circumstances.
For a more in-depth look at how to manage underperforming employees, join our next Managing Underperformance training course.
If you would like support with managing underperformance or implementing Performance Improvement Plans, contact us today.?We can provide HR support and advice on a pay as you go basis through to fully retained packages, depending on your needs.