How To Help Underperforming Workers Without Sinking the Ship

In order to create a more collaborative and supportive work environment, companies are now increasingly asking their management team to coach their employees toward better performance, rather than using the threat disciplinary measures.

No matter their position, professionals all have the same motivations, despite being from different generations, places or genders: Everybody wants to be informed, to have their opinions to matter, to be included in creating change and to be recognized for our hard work.

Leaders can coach their employees by addressing these fundamental needs.

Communicate

When an employee needs to change their work habits, you need to let them know why. Employees want their work to have meaning and the reasoning you give for a change should explain why the new method or methods will be more meaningful – not only to the team but also to that employee’s career prospects.

Specifically, the employee should know what the new strategy is, how it will be executed, what he or she can to do contribute and the reward for successfully employing the new strategy.

Before moving forward with the new method or strategy, confirm with the employee that she or he understands what is being asked of them. If the change is related to subpar performance, listen to any issues the employee raises and consider them appropriately.

Involve the Employee

It is important to have a two-way conversation on possible solutions and approaches to problems. Carry on your discussion to spot the root cause for the lagging performance. Be sure to focus on performance, not the person and ensure you have identified the source of a problem, not just a symptom of it.

Collaborate with the worker to set performance objectives for improvement. These goals should be specific, measurable, reachable, related to the job and deadline-driven.

After talking with the employee and establishing concrete performance objectives, take a moment to consider what you could do to prevent the same problem happening down the road. Great leaders always reflect on their methods to see if they can do a better job next time.

If the employee’s performance does not get better, you should start to emphasize the team member’s ability to keep their obligations to you, as opposed to their performance issue.

Recognize Improvement

Often, leaders can get too caught up in putting out fires and maintaining a certain level of productivity – forgetting to recognize their employees in the process. Be sure to acknowledge employees’ positive progress or effort with the idea of encouraging extended progress toward the agreed-upon objective. Check in on people to see if they are doing well and reinforce past conversations. Show that you appreciate who they are, not simply what they’re doing for you and the company.

At Career Concepts, we work hard to support management at all of our client companies. If you are considering using a custom staffing solution to boost your team’s productivity, please contact us today.