--By Purna Man Shakya

 

A study shows that 60 per cent of a workforce includes average workers based on a 20-60-20-percent rule. Half of the remaining 40 per cent consists of top performers, and the other half includes poor performers. The poor performers can cause the most harm if employers don’t address their productivity problems. Employees who get away with underperforming create laziness in the workplace that hampers the productivity of others. So, in order not to retain non-performing employees three major steps should be taken.

• Identify performers from the non-performers

• Explore reasons of non-performance

• Corrective actions and administering formal discipline

 

Identify performers from the non-performers

Generally saying performers make positive contributions in the achievement of both team and organizational goals and non-performers hardly make such contributions. So, identification of performers is the major strategic step towards non-retaining non-performing employees. Performers normally exhibit following behaviours: 

• They are efficient in terms of communication, workloads handling, change management, managing personal and professional developments.

• They prefer to work closely with co-workers and exhibit inspirational leadership. 

• They are good at planning their own futures and also use the work they do with the employers to help them grow their ambitions. They are often mentors and trainers in the    workplace because they thrive on helping others improve their productivity. They can determine what they must accomplish, set goals and organize themselves to achieve  these goals efficiently. They also actively try to improve their performance, which means they actively find resources they need. It also means they tend to learn from their own  mistakes. Usually they are better at self-direction.

• They recognize that they are their own bosses and the employer is a consumer. 

• They are fearless when it comes to doing what it takes to succeed. 

• Performers also generate many of a company’s new ideas because they tend to look for ways to improve procedures to maximize their own productivity. 

• They adhere to policies, procedures, and regulations 

• They also participate in meetings and other activities for the meaningful outputs.

 

Failing to comply with the above behaviours will qualify a person to be a non-performer.

 

Explore reasons of non-performance

Secondly we should explore reasons of non-performance. Reasons of non-performance can be discussed under four dimensions:

 

a. Employee

The employee may:

• Lack requisite technical skills, public relation skills, and work ethics.

• May be an acceptable performer but is unhappy and wants a different position.

• Have an undisclosed learning disability or medical condition affecting performance

• Have problems with authority: rejects idea that someone will judge their work

• Have mental health challenges: depression, personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorders, etc.

 

b. Poor employee grooming by supervisor

Sometimes supervisors also contribute in grooming poor employees. An employee has the capacity to perform at a higher level but is not been given initial tools and direction to create an opportunity for success. The employees have different assumptions, about what is considered good performance by the supervisor. This situation is often created when supervisor fails to meet regularly with the employees. The supervisor is called as a poor communicator when an employee does not understand relative priorities of various tasks, does not know company policies or procedures and also does not understand what supervisor likes, wants or dislikes.

 

c. Job

Sometimes the person is capable and knows what to do but the volume is just too high for one person to handle. Another issue is whether the employee has enough information and tools to complete their work in an optimum fashion or not. When unrelated or obviously different tasks are thrown together, it may be difficult to find the unique individual who is good at all of them. An example would be a position that requires high-level people relational skills and high-level scientific skills. Sometimes poor job design also contributes towards non-performance. Some of the potential job design issues are:

• Job volume is based on extremely high performer and person is new

• Job contains too many unrelated accountabilities

• Quality standards are impossible to meet

• The job qualifications used in recruitment don’t actually match what is required for the position.

 

d. Workplace atmosphere

Most of us have experienced a toxic workplace environment in which good employees are so distracted by stress and drama that they cannot properly attend to job performance. Here are potential environmental issues that might be a source of non-performance.

• The workplace atmosphere is excessively negative with toxic co-workers, bosses and power struggles. 

• A powerful informal leader controlling activities.

• Good people aren’t consistently praised/rewarded and so become disinterested.

• Negative conduct is not redirected so that co-workers are stressed by co-worker’s abusive behaviour.

 

Corrective actions and administering formal discipline

Dealing with a non-performing staff member is one of the most difficult tasks one faces as a manager. Before taking actions all the options should be considered carefully. Formal discipline is one option, but this can be awkward and disruptive to the team, and may have legal implications. Formal discipline should be used only as a last resort tool when all else has failed. As per Labour Law of Nepal employees cannot be terminated on performance ground but can be terminated on the ground of misconduct. But due to employee union’s influence it is being hard to terminate employees even on misconduct ground. So, formal disciplinary action, such as formal warnings, suspension or termination should be exercised only when all other options are exhausted. If an organization does everything in its power to help a non-performing employee and still remains unsuccessful, it may have to resort to formal discipline. Four less-severe strategies are explained below. 

 

a. Counsel to correct poor behaviour or performance.

Counselling is a pre-planned informal discussion with a team member. The goal is to raise awareness that a problem exists and correct behaviour. During a counselling meeting, problem should be clearly stated; employee should be asked for his/her thoughts about the situation. There should be clarity on both sides on “what needs to be done differently now onwards along with clarity on action plan”. The counselling should end up with encouragement and should set up follow up meeting to discuss results.

 

b. Confront inappropriate behaviour.

Confrontation is an unplanned response to an urgent need to intervene when an employee exhibits poor performance or behaviour. An example may be when a manager witnesses an action that compromises company safety regulations, policies, or procedures. 

Confrontation should: 

• include observation, inquiry, and listening

• acknowledge the effort and explain the concern

• teach corrective action

 

c. Document both good and bad performance.

If the problem intensifies, employee’s performance and behaviour should be documented which will be useful while defending organization legally in future. Documentation should be fair, consistent, and objective. In addition, documentation should note corrective actions and results- good or bad. 

 

d. Measure performance.

Measurement of performance gives foundation for raises, promotions, and corrective actions. Without measurable performance objectives, organization gets open to all kinds of arguments. In the case of disciplinary action, the arguments may have legal implications. Organization must be able to demonstrate objectively the events leading up to disciplinary action. The evidence must speak for itself. 

 

e. Withdrawing responsibilities.

This step should be taken as a tool to demotivate and harass non-performing staffs for encouraging him/her to take voluntary retirement.

 

f. Administer formal discipline as a last resort.

If all else fails to bring compliance, organization must be prepared to enter into the disciplinary process. Discipline is a formal process with serious implications and can put organization in a position to defend itself legally. Generally there are three outcomes of the formal disciplinary process, and in two of the three possible outcomes, organization will lose the employee: 

• The employee will live up to the expectations and successfully correct his or her behaviour or performance.

• The employee will not live up to the expectations and will eventually be terminated.

• The employee will resign outright.

 

When taking formal disciplinary action company’s policy should be followed. Progressive disciplinary action may consist of first level warning, second level warning, stopping pay increment, suspension without pay and termination. At the same time upper management, human resources, legal counsel and any other parties with an interest in action should be consulted before taking such actions. Discipline must be applied consistently in all situations. It should be kept in mind that the organization acts in accordance with the country’s laws, any existing contracts and any collective bargaining agreement.

 

The bottom line of termination is; it should be done with proper homework in order to provide safety to the organization and staffs.

(Based on a discussion organised by Real Solutions, a Human Resource consulting firm recently)