You're Fired

Should you keep that serial underperformer? I'm not here to point the mucky end of the stick at anybody and I need to be clear here, for me this only really applies when employers have delivered properly on their side of the bargain in terms of correctly onboarding, training, managing and supporting an employee.?

That being said...

What do you do when you have a serious underperformer on your hands? - I'm not talking about a marginal person here, I'm talking about someone being way off the productivity level you'd expect - and what's the real cost to the business?

The actual cost is significant and difficult to quantify fully.?Think about not just the lack of productivity from the individual, but also the knock-on effect they have on team morale with others picking up the slack and the additional management time they take up.

Think about the 'opportunity cost' of having that person perform poorly and the difference that someone who is actually good could make.?

Underperformers end up doing damage to clients, deliver inferior quality work and often they'll even go as far as to badmouth the business when they leave.

Another overlooked issue is that in worrying about underperformers, businesses often neglect high performers who are far more important to the company.? ? ? ? ?

It's also often the case that these problem-people are allowed to fester. They'll employ different strategies to avoid work and accountability whilst keeping themselves on the payroll. Do any of these excuses sound familiar to you?:

• Throwing in the towel at the first sign of a challenge.
• ?Trying to take credit for other people's work.
• ?Doing less than the absolute minimum.

?So why don't we do more about them sooner? There are lots of reasons:

• A bum-on-a-seat mentality where the business would rather have someone than no one at all.?
• Most people don't like confrontation or having difficult conversations, however, this one shouldn't be avoided.
• Not making the time to coach or take remedial action with the individual.
• Concern about the difficulty of hiring a replacement.
• Sometimes poor performers are adept at creating a few key relationships in businesses - maybe even with senior people - and this offers them protection.?

Often I'll speak to businesses and they'll tell me they've got people they're not happy with who they'd like to replace but aren't always proactive in doing something about it.

Here are some tips on how take action with an underperformer:

• Be clear on expectations - these should be clear, documented and public for each role to close off any scope for unfair dismissal claims
• Investigate the reasons for poor performance - an investigation should be led by a third party and must be used to establish the facts. Any subsequent disciplinary action must then be taken separately.?
• Tell the employee about the disciplinary - this should detail the reasons for the disciplinary in writing.
• Disciplinary meeting?- detail the reasons for the disciplinary with supporting evidence and examples. The employee should then be given a chance to respond with their side of the story.
• Decide what action to take - this might be a written warning for a first offence, a final written warning if there's form, or in certain cases dismissal. Again, any of these routes should be communicated in writing.
• Dismissal?- if they show no improvement after following a disciplinary process you can move to dismissal.

Taking action with an underperformer is a big deal (and so it should be) for both the employee and employer. Of course, it's far better not to get to this point in the first place through better hiring, onboarding and development. ? ?

Giving someone the sack isn't a great situation for anybody but handling it professionally with empathy and most of all, to the letter of the law, is important.?