Tackling Poor Performance In Your Team. Managers can lose up to one day per week dealing with underperforming employees. [1] Don’t be one of them. Follow these steps to tackle poor performance and reduce the negative impact it can have on your team. One.  Recognize it when you see it. The top poor performance issues reported by employers are. [2] Higher sickness absence, Seventy three percent, Reduced capability, fifty eight percent. Poor attitude to work and behavior towards colleagues, forty seven percent. Poor standard of work, forty seven percent. Failure to meet work objectives, forty six percent. Two. Understand what’s causing it. Everyone has an off day at work now and again. However, underperformance is an ongoing failure to meet specific, realistic objectives and work standards. The key causes of underperformance are. [3] Lack of clarity about goals and expectations. Low ability in terms of the knowledge and skills to do the job Reduced motivation and commitment. Personal issues such as ill health, recent bereavement, money worries etc. Remember that there can be more than one root cause of underperformance. Three. Don’t ignore it. Thirty four percent of managers confess to putting off a difficult conversation for more than a month, but this just makes things worse. [4] A lack of action has negative consequences for. Your team, creates friction tension as other people are forced to pick up the slack, resulting in lower morale and employee engagement. Your organization, creates a negative culture and reputation as a bad place to work. You, if you are seen as someone who doesn’t deal with poor performance, it can affect your credibility and integrity as a manager. Four. Don’t be complacent. Some managers think they’re great at sorting out performance issues when they are anything but. Forty five percent of employers say that their managers are not competent enough to deal with underperformance. [5] Some managers can be overconfident about their ability to deal with a difficult conversation about poor performance, sixty eight percent rate themselves as either extremely or very confident in doing so. However, only twenty five percent of HR managers felt that managers in their organization were either extremely confident or very confident in having a difficult conversation. Tellingly, forty seven percent felt that managers were either extremely or very unconfident in having difficult conversations.[6] Five.  Gather evidence. This is a vital part of addressing performance as it helps you to understand and explain the problem clearly. Key things to remember when gathering evidence are. Do. Gather facts e.g. dates and times of particular incidents or records relating to errors so you can talk about specific examples rather than being vague. Make direct observations yourself if you can. Don’t. Rely on hearsay or subjective opinions. Make assumptions or jump to conclusions. Six. Get together to discuss it. Once you have gathered evidence, the next step is to meet with your team member to talk about the issue. The A.I.D model is a good way of getting to grips about underperformance. A. You describe the specific action or behavior that you have seen or can document e.g. Over the last two weeks you have arrived late for work on six occasions. I. You describe the impact that the action is having on the wider team or department e.g. This means we can’t get started on key tasks until you are here. D.  Lastly, you outline the behavior that you would like to see your team member do differently e.g. It would be good if we can reduce your level of lateness overall, and if are going to be late, you call me to let me know in advance. Seven. Provide the right support. You can reduce the level of underperformance in your team by giving people the help they need to do a good job. Key things to look at are. Resources, do they have all the tools they need in order to perform well and meet your expectations. Skills, do they have the right skills or might they benefit from some development or coaching. Redesign, could the job be changed or re-organized so that it is a better fit. Remember to talk to your team member and ask for their views on what they feel would help them improve. Eight.  Give regular feedback. Sixty five percent of managers say that the most effective way to reduce underperformance is to provide regular informal to their teams. [7] Improve how you give feedback by. Being specific. Giving specific examples of something that needs work or deserves praise is much more likely to resonate with the person and give them something to work with. Let people know exactly what they did well or need to improve on is a good way to improve their performance. Being balanced. Make sure to give a fair representation of the situation. For example, if a report was mostly good, but had one area which required attention, then spend an equivalent amount of time on praising the good aspects before addressing the area for improvement. Looking forward. Feedback should be constructive, not destructive. Good feedback should provide a path for the person to improve in future, and not berate them for previous behavior. Nine. Do what you say you will. Addressing underperformance should not be treated as a one off event. It is really important to follow things up to ensure that improvements are happening. You can do this by. Setting out appropriate standards for improvement and checking that these are being met. Delivering any support and guidance that is needed. Setting appropriate timescales for improvement and monitoring progress. 

References
[1] Robert Half International Survey of 1,400 CFOs conducted in 2012. Available at:  www.roberthalf.co.uk. 
[2] Xpert HR Survey: Managing Underperformance 2011 Survey. Available at: www.xperthr.co.uk.
[3] The Three Things That Cause People to Underperform. Available at: www.manageleadsucceed.com/2012/03/27/the-3-things-that-cause-people-to-underperform/
[4]  Employees Feel Crucial Conversations, VitalSmarts Research. Available at: http://cms.vitalsmarts.com/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/29512982-0d6e-4ccb-9bb4-2389f3bf358a/Employees%20Fear%20Crucial%20Conversations%20Summary.pdf?guest=true. 
[5] Xpert HR Survey: Managing Underperformance 2011 Survey. Available at:  www.xperthr.co.uk.
[6] Learning Consultancy Partnership, ‘Handling Difficult Conversations at Work – Survey Results and Guide’. Available at: http://lcp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Difficult_conversations_at_work_survey_results_and_guide.pdf.
[7] Ibid.

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