After you identify the best people to fill open positions, you must track their progress and provide coaching when they do not meet expectations. What you didn't learn in human resources training is that coaching poor performers takes up valuable time that you could be using to reward strong employees and identify ideal candidates for upcoming job openings. It is difficult to limit the amount of time you devote to poor performers, but you should consider terminating them when they are costing your company money and taking up too much of your time.
Although many human resources training programs emphasize positive interactions with employees, it sometimes makes sense to provide negative feedback. An article in the Economic Times outlines the steps you should take to address poor human resources performance. The author cautions human resources professionals and managers to make negative feedback a rare occurrence, as no one wants to work in a negative work environment. Complimenting the employee on past achievements is a good way to ease into a conversation about performance issues.
Instead of pointing out the worker's poor performance and leaving it up to the worker to find ways to improve, use what you learned in your human resources training to provide actionable steps for employees to take. Point out areas that need improvement and then tell the employee exactly what is expected. Some employees have a difficult time understanding what the term "poor performance" implies, so make sure you back up your statements with objective data. Use your company's human resources performance guidelines to explain exactly how the employee has failed to perform up to standards.
Finally, you must give the poor performer the opportunity to give you feedback. Some human resources training programs emphasize 360-degree feedback systems, but two-way feedback systems can be just as valuable. If the employee's poor performance is due to a lack of necessary tools or resources, it is important that the employee has an opportunity to tell you. If you do not take some time to work with poor performers, you will never know about some of the issues affecting worker performance. In some cases, personal issues are the reason for poor performance. Melissa Kennedy says untreated ADHD is just one example of a personal issue that can hurt a worker's job performance. It is important that you know about these issues, as you might have to accommodate them under federal or state employment laws.
Sometimes your best efforts will not be enough to help poor performers succeed. If that is the case, you must use what you learned in your human resources training and terminate those workers according to your company's policies. According to Brian O'Connell of Forbes, 95 percent of managers report that poor performers are detrimental to employee morale. He also reports that chief financial officers spend approximately 17 percent of their time dealing with employees who just don't understand what is expected of them.
Even the most comprehensive human resources training program cannot prepare you for every situation in the workplace. When it comes to poor performers, you should give them some time to improve, but you should not let them take up hours of your time with no real improvement. If this happens, use what you learned in your human resources training program to terminate a poor performer in a professional manner.
(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)
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