Hate Dealing With Substandard Performance?

Dealing with substandard performance is neither easy nor pleasant. Most of the time you feel like firing substandard performers, but here you'll find a different solution; and more than likely you'll turn these employees into winners. You will also save valuable resources for the company.

But first, remember that you have to define your standards. You do have standards, right? Without standards, how do you know you have a substandard performance?

The definition of standard is - The lowest acceptable performance.

Here is an illustration of what a standard is:

Let's say you have a quota of processing 18 widgets per day. Your standard is then set at 18. If our employee is processing 22, we have a stellar employee. If she processes 17, we have a substandard employee. If she processes 18, she is within standard.

There are three acceptable, rational approaches to dealing with the substandard performer.

First Approach - Upgrade.

You must work with the employee to bring her performance up.

Second Approach - Transfer.

Before you discard this employee, you may be able to find another post in the organization where she can excel. There may be another position which would be a better fit. It is a lot easier to “fix” an employee than going through the process of getting a new one

Third Approach - Terminate.

If nothing helped, you have no choice but to terminate.

Lowering the standards is an option only if everyone else in the unit can't fulfill the quota. That means you have set the standard too high.

Doing nothing doesn't make sense. Termination is the only option.

These are the three approaches of dealing with the substandard employee: Upgrade, Transfer, and Terminate.

If nothing worked, and it looks like you've invested enough time, energy, material, money, it's time.

Now I shall walk through the process of termination.

You are facing the inevitable: Terminating substandard employees. When you realize this is the only option left, for many managers it is high anxiety time. One way is the Trump's famous pointing the finger at the employee and say "You're fired!". But....

Here are the steps to ease the stress and makes it fair for the employee, while at the same time add documentation justifying the termination without a shadow of a doubt.

You put the employee on "formal counseling", and here are the steps:

1. Define the Problem. You have to define the problem. You have to show what is the deviation from the standard that you've set. You did set a standard, right? The employee knew what the standard is, right? Also, get the employee's agreement that he falls short of the standard. If he is supposed to produce 18 widgets per day, yet produces only 14...we've got a problem. The numbers don't lie.

2. Develop a Corrective Program. Develop a program which allows him to correct his performance. The main parts of the corrective action are:

- It is measurable

- It is time sensitive. (There is a time limit).

- It is written.

And...you get the employee's agreement on the corrective action. HAVE HIM SIGN IT.

BTW, If you'd like to receive a Corrective Action Form for your own use, just drop me a note. It's free.

3. Review the Consequences. Establish and agree on the consequences of not meeting the program objectives.

Things can go in two directions: Either the employee corrects the problem. You meet with him every week to review and discuss the progress. When this happens, you are lucky, you saved a resource which otherwise would have been discarded. In some cases, the employee himself sees that this job is not a good fit for him and actually removes himself from the position or looks forward to the "liberation" day. Either way, this is a win for you.

Here is an example.

An agreed upon corrective action is that the next 4 weeks, our employee has to produce 18 widgets per day. After all that is the standard.

Once a week you meet with the employee to review his performance. This is a good time to discuss any other issues.

At the end of the four weeks, if he met the expectations of the corrective action program, he gets off counseling. If not, it is time to acknowledge that this is really not the job for him.

He gets his walking papers, your action is fully justified.

For more information on this subject and other management issues; or requesting a Corrective Action Form, feel free to contact me at tova@managingabusiness.com.