Three Rules for Teaching Your Managers How to Handle Poor Performance

One of the most frustrating aspects of management and leadership is what to do with a bad employee. Unfortunately, many managers who don’t have the skills or knowledge to deal with underperforming employees do nothing and hope the problem goes away.

In this article, we share insights for HR managers to help them learn and coach managers within their organisation to effectively deal with underperforming employees.

One of our organisation’s popular training and development programs is based on helping managers have more meaningful annual performance appraisal conversations. One of the most important aspects of conducting annual performance review interviews is not to highlight review points that were not discussed during the year.

If you’re in an HR role, you know that managers shouldn’t mention poor performance in employee reviews unless they’ve gotten into trouble in the past 12 months. If that employee talks and changes their performance, it should be celebrated and not seen as a negative. But I ask you, do your managers know what to do when encountering a lousy employee who needs to solve a problem?

There are three things your managers need to know. And if they can’t, someone in your HR department might want to share that information.

1. Managers must document their observations when they see a problem with an employee.

As you know, if it’s not written, it’s not. Managers often leave it until it is too late to document problems with employee performance. Instead, instruct your managers to at least make handwritten notes in their spiral notebooks—including the date and time they noticed something was wrong.

For example, if a team member is late for several days in a row, just write it down in a notebook. It may not be a big problem, and no further action is needed, but they will have a record of when the behaviour started if it becomes a problem.

As with any documentation, managers must stick to the facts, remain objective, and avoid opinions when taking notes on what they observe.
Thorough documentation is essential to protect your organisation when poor employee performance reaches the stage of resignation.

2. Your managers should discuss poor performance sooner, not later.

Let’s use the example of an employee who is late for several days in a row. Instead of getting angry, firing the employee, or ignoring their tragedy, your managers, especially some of your junior managers, have the skills to sit down with that employee and have a friendly conversation about the matter – no big deal.

Often, when these issues are addressed in a timely, caring and empathetic manner, the issues resolve themselves. More importantly, the manager may find that the employee has problems and needs help.

3. Encourage your managers to talk to HR early.

Managers, supervisors, and team leaders should always feel comfortable reaching out to your HR department to let them know what’s going on with a team member’s poor performance. This is especially important if the supervisor or team leader is new or inexperienced. You or your HR team can at least give this manager moral support and make sure his actions are legally correct.

Let’s be honest, how many times do you find yourself late for employee questions as an HR manager? And if you had known something earlier, would you have given the manager other advice?

As an HR professional, it is important always to ensure that your managers, especially those new to management and leadership, understand the policies and processes that drive poor performance.

Now might be the time if you haven’t talked to your managers about managing poor performance in a long time. Or empower your people through a training program. I know it well!