I am sure in every company, there will be a non-performing employee you would have to handle. You will need to difficult employee to perform, although he might not be giving his best. You constantly encourage him, but it falls on deaf ears. You could also be having an employee who seems lethargic about what he does – maybe in terms of punctuality, and attitude problems.
What do you do?
Do you let him be, and let him affect the entire company’s productivity? Should you pull the trigger and tell him that he is dismissed, and if so – how do you do this fairly?
The following pointers are the guides for any employer who is currently handling a difficult employee.
Understand the employee, and why is he not performing
It is fundamentally important to listen, and understand why is the employee not performing. This is not only just from the employee himself, but from others. One might feel frustrated about why is this employee not performing or constantly coming to work late, but fail to understand about why this is exactly so. All the other mistakes that the non-performing employee does, all just act as a confirmation basis to you.
The golden rule is that the less someone is performing, the more attention you should give.
Do not misrepresent the information here as gossiping about his poor performance to other colleagues, or to someone he is reporting to. In this point of time, it is also crucial to manage your own expectations. Imagine having the conversation with the under performing employee with the mentality that he will never get better.
Give action orientated Feedback
You have no right to complain about your employees, if you do not share with that about what is wrong with them in the first place. Managers should give action orientated feedback on how to correct the problems or performance issues that employees face.
One of the most vital sign of Feedback is to be consistent with what you feel is wrong. For instance, missing a deadline by a day is the equivalent of missing a deadline by a week. Do not just reprimand those who missed the deadline by a week, but also those who are a day late. Be consistent, and stop confusing your employees.
It is also important to let your employees understand what the consequences are if their performing is not improving. Let them understand the negative consequences that will happen, as a motivation to encourage them to change what they are doing.
While in the process of encouraging the change, provide constant feedback to the employee as well.
Provide documentation
Fundamentally, you should document the work process. Ensure your managers know when he can fire this non-performing employee. You would not want a situation whereby the managers have different practices – which would only lead to degrade the existing employees working for you. The Human Resource (HR) could also be the one conducting briefing regularly and should be readily available for the managers. Generally, most companies practice the verbal warning, written warning followed by the final warning.
The process of handling non-performing employees should be documented to serve as prove should any unjust claims of unfair dismissal should happen. Take pointers of why this employee is difficult, as well as the action plan that has been communicated to the employee.