When Employees Do Not Meet Expectations

There’s no avoiding some employees producing substandard output. This is especially the case for those who’ve stayed on for many years in the same position—work output may have decreased in quality or quantity over the years. The decline is often gradual, and if an employer is not alert, it may become a deep-rooted habit that can spread to other employees and become an enormous drag on the entire operations.

Here are tips on how to nip the problem in the bud:

Probe. What is really causing the problem? Why are they not meeting your standards? Before you decide to act with drastic measures, try to probe your company and its operations. Check if the difficulties your employees are having are temporary or are caused by things outside their control. Maybe the standard operating procedure is lacking a few details, leading to inconsistency. It could also be that the procedure is unreasonably strict, thus delaying the operation. Learn what is happening first before pinning things on your employees.

Re-evaluate your standards. If you are sure that the employees are the ones responsible for the deficit, try to think about your own standards. Are you setting the bar too high? Are you being too meticulous with even the smallest things? Do you expect them to always follow the standard operating procedure in all situations? Raising your expectations too high might be the reason why you are dissatisfied with their performances. Evaluate your employees’ strengths and weaknesses, and set your standards from there.

Offer trainings. You may want to consider sending your employees to corporate training seminars so that they can learn appropriate and updated skills needed for their department. Not all employees would be an exact match for their positions, so try to provide them the opportunity to fill in the gaps by having them attend seminars.

Transfer them to other departments. Assign employees to where they would best work with their strengths. You could also try several team dynamics to see where they work better. Some might simply be tired of their daily routines so putting them in a new environment from time to time may just stimulate them enough to perform top bar.

Coach. Have you considered personally training your employees? After all, you are the one whose standards must be met. Lead by example— show them you are also able to perform what you ask of them. Show them how you want the job done. Let them experience working with you, and knowing what is expected of their position. Give them constant feedback about their work so that they can keep on improving until they meet, and even exceed, your standards.

Benchmark. If you believe that some employees have done remarkable jobs that met your expectations, recognize and set them as examples to other employees. Teach your employees how to benchmark by emulating and creating better versions of work that meet your standards.

Let go. If you believe that your employees are not improving even after you have provided them enough assistance and training in their work, maybe it’s time to let them go. However, only consider this when all else fails. Give them enough opportunity to step up and remedy the situation. Be mindful that you comply with all the rules and legalities to avoid labor complaints of illegal termination.

No private company can long afford poor productivity. The longer you delay dealing with employees who are not performing well, the harder it will be to stamp out the problem and it would inevitably spread to other personnel. With current cutthroat competition, management should always strive to maximize employee performance.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. C-6, Sunday, January 11, 2015. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.