As a people manager or HR professional, there is a constant balance to be struck between time spent on supporting staff who are under-performing, versus time invested in the strong members of your team.
Poor performers: time wasted, or time well spent?
Many managers spend huge amounts of time focusing on poor performers, to the detriment of their star players. Unless they are confident of achieving a turnaround in the under-performer, is this a constructive use of their valuable time?
Managers understand the negative impact of a poor performer, both on the business as a whole and on colleagues. If one member of the team is failing to contribute their fair share, it is not only demotivating to others, but it can destabilize the rest of the team on several levels.
High performers may feel that their colleague is being treated too leniently, whilst they are having to fill in the gaps in productivity. This may lead to a lack of trust and ultimately a desire to move to a different job.
A study on the correlation between job performance and employee engagement found that in 42% of organizations, employees who contributed the least tended to be more engaged than high performers. Failing to deal with a poor performer may mean that you will also lose some of your best people.
What qualities differentiate a high performer from a low performer?
There are a few distinctive qualities that you can find in an employee that determines whether they are a high performer or a low performer. Here is a list of qualities you can find in high performing employees and how to recognize a lower performer:
- Exceeding expectations - high performers will often be found going the extra mile when it comes to their job and the business. Whereas low performers will feel doing the bare minimum is sufficient.
- Setting targets - High performers understand the benefit of setting targets for themselves so they can track their achievements and keep on top of their goals. Low performers will stick to tasks at hand without looking at long-term or even short-term goals.
- Look for feedback - Employees who are high performers will look for regular feedback from their managers and will actively act upon it. In contrast, low performers will not be interested in feedback, will not ask for it and are less likely to act upon it.
These are just a few of the ways you can differentiate between high and low performers. From there it is about developing your high performers and giving them the opportunities they need to grow.
Reasons why someone may be underperforming
There are many reasons why a person may be underperforming:
- They may lack the correct skills to carry out the job
- They may be well skilled, but badly matched to the job
- There may be a lack of motivation, a ‘can do, won’t do’ problem
- There may be an issue with the immediate manager.
A manager who is open and honest, who informs and communicates, who recognizes achievement and values their staff is more likely to be rewarded with engaged and motivated staff.
How to address underperformance
The key to finding the solution is to understand the cause of the problem. There may be an obvious difficulty, such as a disability or illness acquired since the person was first employed. Assuming there is nothing going on in their home life (bereavement, relationship difficulties, financial difficulties, etc.) and the cause is invisible, you need the right tools to discover the root of the problem.
One such set of tools is psychometric assessments. Whilst they are most well-known for use in recruitment, many may not appreciate that psychometric assessments can be valuable throughout the employee lifecycle.
In a 1-1 or annual review, a person may open up to you and tell you why they are struggling, but a psychometric assessment will tell you what’s really going on. It will help you to pinpoint potential issues, create an environment for open and honest dialogue, and provide some insight into how you can manage the person into a more productive mindset.
This will enable you to quickly put an action plan together, so that you can become more effective in your management of their low performance. This may involve targeted training, moving them to a new more suitable position, or helping them to understand and address the causes of their poor performance.
So, how can you, as a people manager or HR professional, identify the problem and then constructively address it?
- If the skills and competencies to do the job are lacking, completing a 360-feedback review will pinpoint the gaps and help the individual to understand the impact they have on the rest of the team/organization.
- A lack of the behavioural strengths to do the job effectively can be addressed by behavioral (DISC) profiling, which will help you compare the person against the ideal job requirements and see what is missing. The same assessment will help you to identify pressures and frustrations, as well as highlighting any problems of a personal or emotional nature.
- Using emotional intelligence and behavioral profiling will identify if interpersonal skills are insufficient.
- There may be a problem with cognitive ability; either the person does not possess enough cognitive ability for the job or, conversely, far more than the job requires. Measuring a person’s mental horsepower will help put into context a person’s trainability – how quickly it will take them to get to grips with a new role, skill or process.
- A poor fit or conflict with the team may also cause poor performance. Completing a team audit will help identify issues of this nature and provide recommendations of how to improve team dynamics.
Identifying the root cause of under-performance will enable you to find an effective solution, such as targeted training. Alternatively, you may decide to move the employee to a more suitable position within your organization; one that matches their skillset better and plays to their strengths. With a remedy in place, you will have more time to devote to your top performers.
Managing an underperforming team
Managing an underperforming team is a difficult task, especially if you are in a crisis situation. The hardest part is the fact there is no magic guide that you just follow that will see you out of the situation you and your team are in. Instead there are some things to look out for and try. It is important to note though, that every situation is different and every team member will come with their own challenges to overcome.
Here we have compiled a list of what to look out for and what to try to turn your underperforming team around:
- Listen to how your team operates - this may seem counterintuitive but by listening to how your team is communicating and working together you may find where things are going wrong and work on improving them.
- Training - issues may be arising because team members haven't been sufficiently trained in the areas they need to be. Or they lack the understanding of what other colleagues may do. Training can resolve these issues and a better trained team will perform better as well.
- Goals and preparation - Setting clear targets will give your team a direction to head towards, with every member being on the same page. This will equally allow the whole team to prepare for tasks with the end result in mind and deadlines that they need to stick to.
- Monitoring performance - With clear goals, you will be able to monitor how well the team has performed and the success of tasks. This can be done on team and individual level, to see who has improved their performance and who may still be underperforming.
- Make the difficult decisions - After giving everyone the resources they need to turn things around, if you find that certain team members are still underperforming then it may be that the hard choice about their future at the company needs to be discussed. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and your team may end up underperforming due to one or two members of the team.
Managing high performers
A manager should never assume that just because an employee is high performing, they are also engaged and committed to their role/the organization. Neither should it be assumed that money is the key to managing high performers and keeping them motivated. They need your time just as much as the under performer, since being left too much to their own devices can lead to a different set of problems.
Just as with an under performer, the team may suffer from the behavior of the top performer if they do not regard themselves as part of the team: a team can contain a number of stars, but this only works if they interact with their colleagues. A star performer needs good interpersonal skills, plus a keen awareness of how their behavior and actions impact others. They may be too focused on results to pay attention to their behavior and since they are excellent at delivering, you may feel that they do not need your time or direction.
Many stars are ‘home grown’ and with more than half of employers increasing their investment in leadership and talent development, time is needed to identify and develop the right rising stars.
Manage your high performers better with Thomas
Gaining a better understanding of your most successful employees will enable you to ensure that they are working to the best of their ability. Understanding the behavioral and emotional preferences of these people provides an objective baseline to help a manager understand them, as well as helping the employees understand themselves.
With the increased understanding that Thomas assessments provide, you can implement effective development plans for your top talent, keeping them motivated and high performing.
Sources:
- Job Performance Not A Predictor Of Employee Engagement Whitepaper, Leadership IQ, 2013
- Resourcing and talent planning survey report, CIPD, 2017
