Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
When you have an employee who is mediocre – or worse – in job performance, you have decisions to make.
Every employee deserves to be told three things:
1. What’s expected of me?
2. How am I doing?
3. What’s in it for me?
There should not be any surprises. You must provide feedback at every level of the process, and cite previous discussions and evaluations of the employee’s continuing issues.
With underperforming employees, either the employee succeeds in a performance improvement plan (PIP) or must leave.
Terminating an employee is one of the most distasteful tasks of a manager. But leaders realize underperforming employees must be terminated.
The question is how to do it.
Certainly, employees who are unethical, embezzle money or assault others should be fired.
For other undesirable behavior or performance, leaders know when it’s preferable to implement a PIP, let someone go and/or help the person move to a more suitable job.
Managing out
Many businesses use a technique commonly called “managing out.” It gives an employee the opportunity to improve behavior and performance.
If not, managing out gives you the information you need on whether the person is going to improve.
Additionally, it reduces the risk of legal action, and is more empathetic than abruptly firing the person.
Here’s how to manage out bad employees:
1. Do performance reviews and set goals
Once the employee is reminded in-person of shortcomings and in-writing, the person should be given written performance-improvement goals for a specific time period.
A PIP works when you know the employee can’t competently meet the goals. Moreover, it provides a paper trail for subsequent actions.
If the employee doesn’t improve within the specified time, it’s best to have an honest discussion about the person’s transition out of the organization.
Ideally, the person realizes it’s time to go before being terminated.
2. Restructuring the organization
Announcing and planning a restructuring of your organization and responsibilities is an often-used technique.
In this way, an employee can be informed of the need to look for a position outside the company because the person’s role is being eliminated.
For a true restructuring and before hiring anyone, change the title and job description.
It’s important to make sure not to hire a replacement who will be merely performing the same duties; and don’t hire a person under 40 who will be doing the same job.
3. Providing incentive to leave
Published reports indicate some companies, such as Amazon, offer financial incentives to quit. Annually, Amazon offers some employees as much as $5,000 to quit. This encourages certain employees to leave if they no longer want to work at Amazon.
To make quitting as attractive as possible, some companies have other strategies:
They keep employees for a period of time so they don’t have a gap in their work history; offer to write a positive letter of recommendation; extend health-insurance coverage for a specified number of months after the person quits; provides severance pay; or give outplacement and career counseling services.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks:
Human Resources: 12 Errors to Avoid in Evaluations – How should you properly evaluate employees? Make sure you are careful to avoid errors in evaluations. Naturally, you want to praise good performance and discourage bad. What are the best ways? Here’s how to avoid making those classic mistakes.
Management – 3 Common Mistakes in Performance Reviews – Not only do most workers stress over getting performance reviews, many bosses stress over having to give them. For management solutions, see these management tips.
Human Resources Tips – Checklist to Prevent Legal Issues – To be successful in management or as a human resources professional, you know the importance of staying current in possible legal issues.
Avoid HR Documentation Mistakes that Cause Legal Issues – You must anticipate possible adverse ramifications – how a jury or judge even months later would view your paperwork if the situation becomes a legal issue. Here’s how.
If it’s Necessary to Fire Employee on FMLA, Here’s How … – Despite what might you have been told, you can discharge an employee while on leave for cause under the Family and Medical Leave Act. If you feel you must terminate such an employee, here are the guidelines.
“What’s measured improves.”
-Peter F. Drucker
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