Mary had "attitude". Her manner was rude and uncooperative and her colleagues complained, but she was efficient.
Her supervisor believed he was stuck with a problem that couldn't be solved. He reasoned that in any office there was always someone that didn't get on with the rest of the staff, and as long as Mary was doing her job, he couldn't do much about it.
Wrong.
Behavioural problems in the workplace can and should be addressed quickly and effectively for the sake of clients, colleagues, customers and suppliers.
7 Steps for Addressing Performance Issues
Addressing specific performance issues outside of the normal regular performance appraisal session is often challenging and many managers try to avoid it. However, with a simple process to follow, and prompt action, it can be made less traumatic for all parties and deliver positive outcomes.
The overall objective of performance management is to improve the satisfaction and performance of the employee.
The objective of a special performance related meeting should be to address a specific performance issue and reach agreement on the most appropriate action to be taken.
- Set up the meeting as soon after the performance related event as possible.
- Commence the meeting by saying what it is about – the particular event or series of events. You may find addressing the issue as a problem we need to solve is an easy way to introduce the subject.
- Outline the facts as you see them and include in this the objectives or standards that have been agreed. For example: "I wanted to discuss progress on the ABC project with you. We had agreed that Stage 2 would be completed by the end of the week and this does not appear to have happened." Or, if it is a specific unacceptable behaviour that is in question: “I wanted to discuss your conversation with Sally where I believe you said––––”
- Ask for the employee's version of events. Ask what, when, where, how, type questions where necessary to obtain this.
- Agree on any gap or shortfall between the agreed standard and the actual performance. Focus on this in a factual way before moving on. Do not pass judgment. Treat it as a problem solving exercise with the understanding that a problem is a deviation from a standard. If there is no agreement that performance has fallen short, then there is unlikely to be any real commitment to a solution.
- Agree on a specific action or series of actions that will close the gap and meet the required standard.
- Agree on a time to review. Make this as soon as possible after some progress may have been made. If insufficient progress has been made it may be necessary to move to the initial steps of the disciplinary process. If progress has been made, recognise and reinforce it and agree the expectation that it is to be sustained.
Note: Having predetermined performance objectives or required behaviours makes this process much easier.
There are two key dimensions to performing successfully: what is done and how it is done. Yes, the clerk did her job, but her behaviour was such that the team was not functioning well.
Managers are often surprised to learn they can take effective action to address the behaviour of employees - how they go about their jobs rather than the end result.
While we normally prefer to measure the outputs, we also need to manage inputs and employee behaviour is one of these. The sales assistant in a department store may not have much control over total sales from his area; they could well be dependent on the stock held, pricing, advertising or some other element of the mix. However, the sales assistant does have control over his own behaviour. How he presents himself, greets customers, solves their problems and handles queries are all inputs to the sales process. These inputs can be measured against established standards and the employee managed accordingly.
To look at this issue from a positive perspective, one in which we can shape the culture of the organisation and consequently the behaviour of our people, we need to define the type of organisation we want in terms of what we call competencies. (One of our clients prefers to call them attributes.) These can be such aspects of business as innovation, results-orientation, flexibility or customer focus. There are in fact countless terms we can use to describe what we want to be. With every client that we have taken through this exercise, a different picture emerges. Looking at what successful people have demonstrated and what the business requires, is a useful technique to identify the specific competencies for your organisation.
These competencies can then be expanded by describing them in a little more detail: it's amazing how many different descriptions there can be for the word "flexibility" for example. Then comes the really useful part.
What does someone with these competencies or attributes actually do? To find out, we need to describe the behaviours we witness so that we can encourage others to behave in a similar fashion.
For example, a behaviour associated with teamwork may be that the team member willingly shares information with others, or compliments others on their successes. Someone who is results-oriented will usually set clear and measurable goals – both at work and outside.
Once these behaviours are defined and communicated to the workforce, the company can then confirm that individual employees are more likely to succeed by demonstrating these traits. Employees welcome such guidance as most organisations rarely make it clear what it takes to succeed. Similarly, the company can reasonably expect employees to meet some minimal standards.
Building these behaviours into the performance management system, along with the results required from each job, provides clear measures of not only what has to be done - but how.
It is often said that we hire people for what they can do and fire them for how they do it. But, in practice, often we do not directly address the issue of how they are doing it. The usual solution is to restructure and make problem employees "redundant" or find some other reason to let them go. With a properly identified and well-executed set of competencies and behaviours we can manage the workforce much more effectively and fairly and then be in a better position to focus on specifics. At the same time we can reinforce the positive message to other staff and customers that competencies represent "the way we do things around here".
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Effective Performance Management