Employee Performance

You’re not alone! When employee performance is truly awful and the individual is failing to hit targets again and again then it’s likely that you’d know what to do. However, when an employee’s performance just isn’t quite right but you can’t quite put your finger on where they are going wrong, it can seem like it’s going to be a very difficult situation to manage.

This is where we can help. We’ll have helped clients with managing poor performance issues that are just like the issue you’re experiencing and we can help you to articulate it and come up with appropriate measures to help the employee understand where things are going wrong and hopefully get them back on track.

When it comes to managing poor performance it’s possible that you’ve tried all sorts of approaches already but you know that none of them have ticked the right legal boxes in order for you to rely on them if you do move through a formal process.

Equally, your not acting “by the book” could be that you’ve really not raised the issues with the employee at all and you know that it’s not been the right thing to do.

Whatever it is that you think you may have done wrong, tell us, and we’ll help you find a way through the issue.

Firstly, you can get it all off your chest! Managing poor performance can be stressful and frustrating, so having an objective listener to vent to can be extremely helpful (and therapeutic!)

Next, we help you get practical. We’re likely to have come across a similar situation before and we’ll talk you through tips and techniques to address the problem. We can help you prepare for difficult conversations, provide templates to set clear objectives and track progress and be there to support you if things don’t go to plan.

Finally, if you really can’t get employee performance to where you need it, we can guide you through the Disciplinary Process.

We’re going to be honest and tell you that yes, it might do.

Whilst we can guide you through the process of managing poor performance and support you every step of the way, you do need to have someone who is inside your business to provide regular feedback to the individual on how they are doing and what they need to be addressing.

This doesn’t have to be you, and it may not be appropriate for it to be you, but it has to be someone who knows what the individual does on a day-to-day basis and who can provide guidance and support.

Now, we can definitely help that individual. We can train them on how to give feedback if that’s something they struggle with. We can be in meetings with them and the employee to help them make sure the employee really understands what they need to be working on. We can help them structure Performance Improvement Plans and set targets, but on this one, we can’t manage employee performance without someone who has real insight into your business.

Here are the two main risks, and how we can help manage them:

Risk 1: You don’t get the improvement that you want and need to move to a disciplinary. Support: We’ll ensure you’ve done everything right up to the point of disciplinary, which will make the disciplinary process much easier. (Your employee also won’t be surprised when they’re told their performance isn’t up to scratch.)

Risk 2: Your employee takes offence at your attempts to provide feedback, raises a grievance or resigns claiming constructive dismissal. Support: It’s unlikely an employee would get far with claims like this, but you could still end up with a lot more work on your plate, so we can support you through the process and avoid this where possible.

Our experience in dealing with challenging situations will help you effectively manage individuals and minimise the risk of the situation worsening.