Hate Dealing With Substandard Performance?
Dealing with substandard performance is neither easy nor pleasant.
Most of the time you feel like firing substandard performers, but here you’ll find a different solution; and more than likely you’ll turn these employees into winners. You will also save valuable resources for the company.
But first, remember that you have to define your standards. You do have standards, right? Without standards, how do you know you have a substandard performance?
The definition of a standard is – The lowest acceptable performance.
Here is an illustration of what a standard is:
Let’s say you have a quota of processing 18 widgets per day. Your standard is then set at 18. If our employee is processing 22, we have a stellar employee. If she processes 17, we have a substandard employee. If she processes 18, she is within standard.
There are three acceptable, rational approaches to dealing with the substandard performer.
First Approach – Correct/Upgrade.
You must work with the employee to bring her performance up. You must explain the standard and get her agreement that she understands what the standard is. The employee may or may not be able to correct her performance. As you work closely with this employee, you may find out more about the employee. There may be other issues hindering her performance. This brings us to the
Second Approach – Remove/Transfer.
Before you discard this employee you may be able to find another post in the organization where she can excel. Take a look at the different elements that affect the job.
Third Approach – Terminate/Fire.
If nothing helped, you have no choice but to terminate. Lowering the standards is an option only if everyone else in the unit can’t fulfill the quota. That means you have set the standard too high. Doing nothing doesn’t make sense. Fire their ass. As it is, you’ve already spent a lot of resources on this loser. Termination is the only option. Expanding on this is a page on termination.
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For more approaches regarding control, take a look at the following pages:
Go to the Control Process Page
Go to the Heisenberg Principle Page
Go to the Supervisory Decisions Page