Every team or company has some employees who have the potential but aren’t reaching it and aren’t delivering their best work. It happens. It’s not about pointing fingers at them but figuring out why your employees are struggling and finding the right ways to motivate them so that you can boost them and turn things around. After this you can see the effects—healthier and more engaged workplace.
In this article, we’ll explore why this happens and give some tips on how you can motivate your underperforming employees.
What causes employees to underperform?
- Lack of Skill: Employees may lack confidence and have performance issues if they’re given a job they don’t know much about and due to which they feel lost. Although they have skills, sometimes they create a mess because they cannot manage their time.
- Job dissatisfaction: If the employee’s expectations with their jobs aren’t, they slowly develop the feeling of disappointment and become demotivated.
- Lack of Clarity: Sometimes when company goals are poorly defined employees struggle to understand and are not sure of what they’re supposed to do.
- Workplace Stress: Employees who are constantly in a high-pressure environment where they feel stressed or pressured, it can mess up their work.
- Monotony of Job: A major reason that leads to declining performance is giving employees repetitive tasks and they start feeling bored.
- Cultural Mismatch: Employees may not feel connected with their colleagues or managers, whether it’s because of their work style and values along with the culture.
Remediation:
Here’s how you can handle your underperforming employees, step-by-step:
Phase 1: Immediate Correction and Clear Expectations
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Dive deep into Perspective
Schedule a dedicated 1:1 to understand their perspective. Ask them what challenges they are facing whether it is regarding any meeting or their job roles, even the obstacles they are facing. Try to understand the root causes from their point of view when you notice any inconsistencies.
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Build Trust
Create an environment where your employees feel comfortable while being open and honest, start by building a foundation of trust. Also emphasize that you’re not just criticizing them always but also are there to support them.
Joining Goal Setting
Set up specific measurable goals which you can collaboratively set and ensure that those goals are achievable for the next few weeks.
Phase 2: Empowerment and Skill Development
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Skill Gap Identification
When you notice your employees are going through some challenges with time management, explore some resources and strategies so that you can improve them. You can do this by identifying skill gaps and creating a development plan based on what skills you feel that you need to develop so that you can be more successful in your role.
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Empowered Learning
Provide resources and opportunities for learning, but encourage them to take ownership.
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Celebrating Small Wins
No matter how small progress your employees have made, don’t forget to acknowledge them and celebrate their progress.
Phase 3: Sustainable Growth and Ownership
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Ownership of Solutions
Instead of telling your employees what the problem is, rather try to provide them solutions while also encouraging them to develop their own solutions.
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Long-Term Goal Alignments
Try connecting the long-term career goals of your employees with their current work.
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Continuous Feedback
With the ongoing growth and development, establish a regular feedback loop or else have monthly meetings in which your employees can discuss their career development plans, plus, identifying any challenges that they might be facing.
Common performance issues, their Causes and Actions to be taken:
Issue 1:
Works aren’t being completed on time and there is a lack of effort from the employees side, sometimes they don’t even know what they’re supposed to do as they are not grasping the basic job requirements. It needs to be fixed.
Causes:
- Sometimes the job itself is a problem, there’s a mismatch in job content and design.
- The job roles don’t fit the employee and they might be in the wrong role.
Actions:
- Have a relaxed conversation without making the employees feel pressured.
- If there’s anything outside the company that’s affecting them, conduct counselling services for them.
Issue 2:
Employee is absent without any cause.
Causes:
- Sometimes, they don’t like the way they are managed by their bosses or management style.
- Personal or workplace issues.
Actions:
- Begin by figuring out why they are missing so much work as you need to understand what’s really going on.
- Look for effective Strategies to overcome this issue or you may change their job roles if it isn’t the suitable one for them, adjust their working hours or even help with their health issues.
Best Practices
Dealing with underperforming employees isn’t just a simple fix but rather understanding the individual situation as sometimes it may be due to some personal issues, other times it can be a long-term problem that needs serious attention. Here are some additional practices that you can do:
- Recognize and Reward.
- Address Issues promptly.
- Conduct private meetings.
- Document everything.
- Be specific and Clear about all the things.
- Establish a performance system.
Final Note:
You can consider these key steps to create a best-practice workplace which is beyond legal compliance. Plus, a good HRMS system can make these processes even smoother as by utilizing a robust HRMS system can streamline the documentation, communication aspects of dismissal processes and tracking that ensures compliance and fairness.
