Managing an Employee with Poor Performance

Everyone has bad days at work, but if your employees demonstrate consistently poor performance, it’s worth looking into the causes. While there are many reasons why an employee might be struggling, there are also solutions. Consider some of the following ways to manage an employee with poor performance.

How is Employee Poor Performance Defined?

An underperforming employee can’t or won’t do the work assigned to them. It may involve signs such as:

• Chronic procrastination
• Lateness
• Absences
• Missed deadlines
• Mistakes
• Frequent conflict
• Lack of engagement
• Physical symptoms like depression or frequent illness
• Difficulty collaborating
• Failure to respect company policies

Reasons Why Employees Underperform

Not all signs of poor performance are intentionally insubordinate. Some employees may be harboring concerns they are afraid to address with managers or HR. Some of the reasons employees may be showing signs of underperforming include:

Lack of onboarding or training

Gallup reports that “only 12% of U.S. employees say their company does a good job of onboarding.” Furthermore, “nearly one in five employees either report that their most recent onboarding was poor — or that they received no onboarding at all.” Onboarding and training are crucial steps for new employees to learn the culture, become acquainted with managers and colleagues, and clearly understand their roles and responsibilities. Even when new hires come in with the required skillset, they need tools to succeed at the new company. 

New employees are more likely to try to adapt without bringing up concerns, which can sometimes result in inadvertent mistakes. The longer someone tries to muddle through without proper training, the more likely they are to feel discouraged and possibly even quit. 

In the wrong role

An employee may demonstrate the charisma and enthusiasm to fill a role where their skills may ultimately be unsuitable. Some people can learn and adapt to new responsibilities, but others may find it too much of a challenge, leading to stress or anxiety and poor performance.

Personal problems

Life presents myriad challenges that an employee may choose to keep private. Family crises, health scares, childcare difficulties, or bereavement may all affect an employee’s performance. They may find it difficult to concentrate on work and disengage emotionally.

Taking on too much work too fast

It’s common for people to accept a new role or additional tasks at work, even if what’s being asked is new or unfamiliar. Sometimes a boss’s faith can motivate someone to try something new, but the resulting work may be less than ideal. 

“A mistake that bosses sometimes make is to dump too much on a person all at once, setting them up to fail. Sometimes managers simply have unreasonable expectations about what one human being can do,” says Kim Scott at Radical Candor. “Other times, managers map their own capacity onto the people who work for them. They forget that a person with 10 years less experience than they have simply doesn’t know certain things.”

Inadequate advancement opportunities

Over the course of a career, people change. Work they once found engaging may feel boring or stagnant. They may want to advance in management or higher pay without a clear path to meeting those goals. Economic factors can lead to hiring or promotion freezes, reduced supplemental training opportunities, or reorganizations that diminish career ambitions. If employees feel stuck in their current role, their work quality and work relationships may suffer.

Tips For Managing Poor Performance

Review these tips to manage an employee with poor performance.

Recognize the signs

While not exhaustive, using the list of signs above can help managers recognize when employees are showing signs of poor performance. HR can train managers on watching for changes that may indicate hidden concerns. It’s important to document your observations to report them to HR.

Establish company policy

Large institutions, such as the federal government, have strict guidelines to address every aspect of employee performance. While your business may not require that level of scrutiny, it can be useful to have a standard policy for addressing instances of poor performance. This may include managers documenting their observations, developing example language for initial conversations, establishing a timeline to involve HR, or implementing a probationary system.

Develop a plan with employee input

Try a coaching approach to conversations about poor performance. Before any discussion, write out your questions. “Some helpful ones: 

• Have you noticed this? 
• Has this happened before? 
• What’s getting in your way? 
• Can you help me understand why you did (or didn’t) do this?”

Giving the employee room and space to answer might reveal hidden concerns with doable solutions. Include questions that seek the employee’s input in the plan: 

• What ideas do you have to help the situation?
• What steps can you take?
• Let’s set a future date for follow-up.

Where possible, be generous in offering supportive solutions such as time off for a family issue or skills training.

Follow up with feedback

Most performance issues will require more than one meeting. Establish the parameters for future check-ins in the first meeting, and use those conversations to provide encouragement and constructive feedback. Ideally, say Andrea Boatman and Neelie Verlinden of AIHR, you can present input from multiple people who interact with the employee. “Consider these principles when offering feedback: 

• Focus on one or two issues per session to avoid overwhelming the employee
• Keep the critique (if any) straightforward but positive
• Point out how the changes made are making a difference in the team’s productivity
• Commend the employee for their achievements to increase their confidence.”

Acknowledge when change is necessary

Sometimes, poor performance reaches a point where parting ways is the right choice. Employees are protected from unfair termination by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but “employers remain free to discipline or terminate employees for poor performance or improper behavior.” To guard against future action, document all evidence of performance issues and any attempts to help the employee effect change.

Employees may exhibit poor performance for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, a thoughtful discussion can reveal what’s going wrong, and together, you can create a plan for improvement. With the right tools to manage your workforce, you can focus on other aspects of building stronger teams and supporting employees more effectively. WorkforceHub handles timekeeping, scheduling, hiring, and HR tasks, streamlining these efforts while ensuring data accuracy. Try it for free today and experience how it can transform your workplace.