Managing Underperformers

Performance reviews conducted during the performance appraisal help identify the underperformers. The underperformance should not be mistaken for indiscipline or unethical behaviour.

The underperformance may happen at two levels:

• Not achieving the expected results (goals not met)
• Not fulfilling the expectations of a job (roles and responsibilities not performed at the expected standard)

The under performance may be caused due to many reasons such as:

• Lack of defined role
• Wrong person hired for the role
• Lack of goal clarity
• Poor expectations setting
• Lack of required competencies
• Lack of training to improve competencies
• Poor collaboration skills
• External circumstances like changes in government policies
• Lack of finances or other resources
• Work stress/burnout
• Lack of motivation
• Lack of confidence
• Personal issues

Steps to Manage Underperformers

Mangers need to manage the performance of these underperformers by using following steps:

One-on-one feedback meeting

The manager must meet face-to-face (whether in-person or online these days) with the employee who is not performing to the expectations. Schedule the meeting an agenda, inform the same to the employee. The manager must ensure that the meeting is confidential. Choose a place where there are no interruptions/distractions.

Manager must also ensure that his own behaviour is conducive to this meeting, he should be respectful and open while sharing feedback with the employee.

Provide critical feedback

Manager to share the problems, issues and concerns about the employee performance openly during this meeting. Give examples indicating where the performance is not according to the standards expected. Also share the impact of that employee’s performance on others (team) and the organisation. Clarify the expectations, standards again.

Explain where the exact gap in performance is. Confirm that the employee has understood the problem/issues/concern shared. Let the employee ask clarifying questions, share his/her concerns, express feelings. Listen intently.

Provide coaching

The manager must help the employee to identify the solution. Ask questions to explore various options.

Inform the employee that he/she is important to the team how performance improvement will help the employee in his/her career growth. The manager must focus on positive possibilities and also give the same confidence to the employee – that change is possible.

Develop formal PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) and an action plan

Once the solution is finalised, the manager must help the employee to develop an action plan. The action plan must contain details of performance improvement areas, actions to be taken, timelines, support and resources required and also a plan B in case current solution doesn’t work.

PIP is always created for a specific period and the employee is expected to improve his/her performance by accomplishing tasks given to him/her at standards clearly defined.

Act on the action plan

Once the action plan is finalised, manager must provide support to the employee to role it out. Provide necessary training or assignments/projects, re-define the roles or goals, if required and coach the employee from time-to-time.

Monitor performance

Constant communication is the key here. Keep monitoring the performance, often meet, review status and encourage the employee on any small growth or achievement shown. Maintain the performance record, document it.

Even if the goal of this action plan is achieved, maintain a record and continue with review and feedback meetings. Celebrate small wins on the way and motivate the employee to maintain this new level of performance and then improve it further.

Take final decision

Based on the performance improvement of the employee, the management takes final decisions. In case the performance is improved as expected, the employment of the person is continued and he/she is given further goals to work on and the performance is closely monitored.

However, if the performance is improved as expected, then the management may have to take a stricter action and even terminate the employment of the person, if required. In such instances, the management must ensure to follow the legal and ethical practices.

Addressing underperformance can be challenging for both managers and employees. Failure to address underperformance appropriately, sensitively and promptly, can have a significant impact on your workplace culture and productivity. The manager must address under-performance issues without any delay. It helps resolve the issues and avoid serious problems.

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Performance Management Forms

Performance management forms are working documents and an important part of employee record. They are required to review the performance progress of an individual employee over the years.

They record agreements on performance achievements and actions to be taken to improve performance (if any) or develop competencies. Therefore, both, the manager and the employee need to keep a copy of these forms.

The performance management forms must be simple and easy to use. The design of the form is based on the following factors:

• Purpose of creating the forms
• Information required by manager, employee and HR department later
• Expected quality of performance reviews
• Frequency of use of these forms

Performance Management Forms as Working Documents

A working document is a record of the progress of any work/task/project/goal. The performance management forms are working documents too as they provide data on defined goals, goal achievement progress review, final evaluation of the performance and even the documentation of compensation and career decisions based on the performance of an employee.

The performance document forms are necessary for the following reasons:

• To define and document goals
• To review progress and document the status
• To identify high and poor performers
• To document performance ratings
• To take compensation and reward decisions
• To identify training needs
• To identify successors
• To use as supporting documents during legal proceedings (if required)

And therefore, the performance management forms must be designed and maintained effectively. They should be easily accessible and understood by all. Data entry should be comfortable too.

Following are the forms required for performance management:

• Goal setting form
• Review form
• Evaluation form
• Action plan form
• Training needs identification form
• Development action plan form

If the hard copy of forms is used, then mostly all these forms are combined in one or two forms like performance appraisal form and performance review form.

Web-enabled Performance Management

Performance management system has come a long way since it was first used way back in 1900s. It has seen a lot of transitions over the decade. From checking the discipline and quality of work to introduction of rating scales to formal appraisal system to feedback sharing to 360-degree appraisal to participatory performance management system to bell curves to no bell curves!

Similarly, the methods of conducting performance appraisal have also seen a shift from pen and paper to electronic mode. In the past few years, various performance management software systems are being developed and used by many organisations across the world.

Web-enabled PMS provides very important functions that are just ‘one click’ away:

• Goal setting templates customised as per organisation requirement
• Evaluation metrics built-in for an easy assessment of performance\
• Review cycles and calendar reminders are built for easy feedback sharing
• Graphical presentation of performance over a period of time
• Competency assessment
• Action plan template
• Development plan template
• Learning calendar
• Easy reports
• Mobile apps of the same software

In today’s competitive and fast-changing world, reducing time on lots of paperwork and changing transactional processes becomes cumbersome. Web-enabled PMS helps to make these changes smoother and faster.

Some of the other benefits of web-enabled PMS can be stated as below:

• It is faster than pen and paper
• Easy to fill in the formats provided
• Location of manager and employee is not a constraint
• All performance activities can be easily tracked and documented
• It ensures that individual goals are aligned with corporate goals
• 360-degree appraisal can be conducted easily
• Real time feedback can be provided
• Keeps easy record of all employee performance
• Faster analysis based on data
• One time investment
• Easy to refer to old data in future
• No physical space required for document storing
• Individual performance data is protected
• Easy analysis of team and organisation performance

Web-enabled PMS has some disadvantages too. They can be stated as below:

• Lack of network connectivity for the people using mobile app
• If the document is not saved, one may have to re-write the whole thing
• Standard formats make it difficult to record out of the format performance results
• Personal touch is lost – lack of face-to-face dialogue opportunities
• May become a ‘copy-paste’ endeavor from year to year
• Sometimes the system auto-locks after a specific date and one may lose the opportunity to record performance progress

The benefits clearly outweigh the disadvantages of web-enabled PMS. It enables improving employee engagement through feedback, recognition, and transparency. It helps organisation to frequently and quickly review its performance and mitigate the risks involved.

The performance management may see a lot of further changes, but looking at the benefits, the web-enabled PMS is certainly here to stay for long!