How to Handle Underperformers

Regularly I get asked to assist with handling underperformers. Very often it has been ignored for too long and now suddenly something has to happen. The manager is annoyed about the employee's recent behaviour, a solution has to be found immediately and if possible a dismissal would be most welcome.Handling underperformers is not a quick fix solution. However it is essential that underperformers are dealt with! If you ignore the issue your company will create a company culture of underperformance. Something you definitely don’t want.  

In tackling the tricky problem of underperformance at any level, it is always important to understand what is causing the performance shortfall. This is critical to decisions on what to do and how to deal with the issues both for the individual and organisation.

The most usual causes of under-performance are:

·         Capability: promoted beyond personal ability to develop and change; insufficient development input either recently or earlier in career; in the wrong role for skills / capabilities

·         Inappropriate attitudes or behaviours – resistance to change – inappropriate leadership style – coasting: doing just enough

·         Interference of background issues: family and marriage

·         Illness – medical conditions

·         Poor management / clarity of direction – being allowed to do the wrong things; unrealistic objectives

·         Lack of support from manager / colleagues / others who should contribute to achievement levels.

·         Substance abuse – alcohol and / or drugs

·         Insufficient self confidence / self-esteem – sometimes related to harassment and bullying.

Managers need to take decisions in handling underperformance. It can often be helpful for the manager to set up and agree a performance improvement plan – a short term performance plan where the manager works closely with the individual. This typically involves frequent meetings to review progress with agreed actions, the provision of personal support and coaching from the line manager. However set a deadline for the improvement plan if let say there is no improvement after two or three months then a more serious action plan needs to be unfolded.

The next step is the Disciplinary Procedure and you need to follow your own disciplinary procedure as described in your contract of employment. Often this is done in conjunction with a development plan but if there are no improvements then written warnings under the company disciplinary procedure will follow. Often there is a wake up and suddenly employee improves considerable. However sometimes the employee doesn’t change his behaviour and eventually they will exit the company.

It is important to have a clear approach when dealing with underperformers and give them the support to change and improve however if this doesn’t happen then there is only one option open to a company...

If you want to talk to me about under performance give me a call at 065 7071933

Unions Back in Actions

• 6500 Electricians to strike in two weeks over pay rates – February ‘14

• SIPTU to set a picket at UCC’s Tyndall Institute over pay issues – February ‘14

• SIPTU 350 members at Shannon Aerospace are to ballot for industrial action at the end of this week – February ‘14

• Labour Court Proposal rejected by SIPTU Staff at Liebherr – January ‘14

These are some of the newspaper headlines over the last number of weeks. Sometimes they appear on the front page sometimes the articles are on the back page. However what is clear from all this, that for some months, that Irish unions are back in action.  Two central themes are coming up protection of pension arrangements, especially regarding Defined Benefit pension schemes and pay claims from around 2.5 % which need to be back dated over a couple of years.

If you heard SIPTU’s Jack O’ Connor on RTE Radio recently in discussion with Mark Fielding of ISME and RTE’s George Lee, well discussion you couldn’t really call it as Jack kept interrupting Mark and George consistently. Jack meant business and was highlighting that SIPTU had achieved pay increases in over 100 companies of around 2 – 2.5%.

What is clear is that the worst of the recession is over, the troika have left and the unions are claiming their fair share. With Irish unions this leads to a scramble for who can get most, with around 50 unions trying to out manoeuvre each other. You see Irish Industrial Relations has a tendency to reward the most militant unions, the ones with the highest demands. In industrial action it is not always important what the majority of employees in a company find reasonable and acceptable. No, if a majority of the members of one union decide something then that agenda has to be followed and it doesn’t matter that the union has only a minority of the employees in the company. Here are some golden rules to apply if wage bargaining is to be an issue: -

1.    Do not negotiate if you do not have to. In most small and medium size companies there is no union recognition and no agreement with the union that new salaries have to be negotiated. So if you do not have an agreement with a union do not negotiate even if the unions would like to have a place at the table.

2.    Setting the agenda. Many companies have been caught out by starting talks and not sorting out the agenda and procedure. You could be making a far reaching deal with the union officials only to be confronted with the fact that the union members have the final say on it and reject it. The already far reaching deal has to be renegotiated to include even more concessions. Set up and organise a clear agenda and procedure under which the negotiations take place. Make it clear that what happens when a deal is negotiated and if the union insists that their members have the final vote before it can be accepted, maybe your management board has to have the final vote on it as well and can reject it as well as too far reaching. 

3.    Setting your own objectives. Establish what wage increases you can afford and define three possible settlements from your company’s point of view: the ideal or best possible deal, a realistic or best possible settlement and the worst, though still acceptable settlement. Before setting these objectives make sure you know where your company’s stands compared to other companies in areas such as salary, benefits, compensation, economic growth etc. Know your salary levels compared to your industrial sector and regional salary levels. Is your company paying above or below the average salary levels in your industrial sector and region? Are your benefits and compensation on a par with other industries? Most likely unions will start negotiating with companies they perceive as easy targets to set a trend in wage negations. Always focus on your own situation and make it clear to the union that your company cannot be compared to these easy targets.

4.    Preparing the case. Once the objectives have been defined, it is necessary to put a case for negotiation together. The bargaining process is one in which attitudes are swayed by a complex mixture of facts, logic, interest, fears and pride. Preparation involves consideration of the information which will be needed to support the case being made. It is essential to consider this from the other party’s view point. Try to establish the unions and employees objectives at the wage negotiations. Try to find out what they negotiated at other companies. Hold a mock bargaining round and let some managers play devil’s advocate, examining your company’s position and probing the company’s arguments for weak points and prepare your answers for the real event.

5.    Communicate. Before, during and after the wage negotiation keep communicating with your staff, in particular your managers, supervisors and team leaders regarding the company’s point of view and need. Make sure that your managers and supervisors are all aware of these essential points which will ensure the company’s survival. I do not mean to give away the bargaining plan, however, keep them abreast of what you can do regarding wages and benefits and if union objectives are in the interest of the company. Very often only the union communicates effectively with employees during this phase and this will lead to high and unrealistic expectations and difficulties with staff once an agreement is reached.

These are just a few of the practical personnel solutions regarding wage negotiations. There are many more issues to address and many pitfalls to watch out for. If in the next few months you require advice regarding wage negotiations or are suddenly caught in the middle of wage negotiations, I would be delighted to give you any assistance you may need in these uncertain and difficult times.

If you want to discuss People Management with me do not hesitate to contact me at 065 7071933. 

Personal Development Plan

As part of any good Performance Management System for a company there should be included Personal Development Plans for the employees. From a HR perspective you can only develop a company through its employees. Employees who stop developing will eventually become a burden to the company.

At the start of the year when performance objectives are set, is the right time to develop Personal Development Plans (PDP).

Personal Development Planning aims to promote learning and provide people with the knowledge and portfolio of transferable skills that will help to progress their careers and further develop the organisation. A development plan for employees is essential. At the start of the year a manager needs to identify where an employee is and where the employee could be further developed to assist the company in their development as well.

There are five stages in preparing a Personal Development Plan, these are:-

Ø  Identify development needs

Ø  Identifying the company’s development needs

Ø  Identify means to link both needs

Ø  Plan action

Ø  Implement

A Personal Development Plan (PDP) is an important part of the performance management system. It is a plan on which to record where the level of competence is met but where we would like to develop further, any training and / or development needed to support the delivery of that objective and any gaps in skills, knowledge or behaviour that need to be overcome in order to meet our objectives.

It gives jobholders and line managers the opportunity to:

Ø  Identify, discuss and agree development needs for the year ahead

Ø  Prioritise and plan how these will be addressed and achieved

Ø  Agree and set dates for reviewing the plan

Ø  If necessary, plan how poor performance might be improved

The implementation is mainly the responsibility of the individual – PDP is largely about self-managed learning. Managers have a responsibility to provide coaching, give support and to organise formal training. Managers must also ensure that individuals are given the opportunity to implement their PDP, which may include time off the job to complete training.

The introduction of PDP should not be undertaken lightly. It is not just a matter of designing a new back page to the performance review form and telling people to fill it in. Neither is it sufficient just to issue guidance notes and expect people to go with it.

Managers, team leaders and individuals all must learn about PDP. They should talk to the employees, encourage them to develop themselves and need to give suggestions which development might benefit the employee and company. The benefits to both should be understood and accepted.  It has to be recognised that everyone will need time and support to adjust to a culture in which they have to take more responsibilities for their own development.

Personal Engagement

An "engaged employee" is one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization’s reputation and interests. Last week our local CIPD Midwest committee and the University of Limerick organised a seminar on Employee Engagement which was a big success as 92 people attended this seminar. For the CIPD Midwest this was probably the highest number of people ever attending such an event. This success was due to the involvement of the Human Resource Section of the University of Limerick. A big thank you to them!

There were four speakers at the seminar, three from UL; Sarah MacCurtain, Michelle Hammond and Paddy Gunnigle and one outside speaker Kieran Dunne from MSD, who from practical experience spoke about a major change process in a Multinational and how to engage with employees during such a process. In all it was an excellent seminar!

I was intrigued by Sarah MacCurtain’s lecture regarding a more personal engagement. Sarah asked the question how engaged are you yourself? Great to increase the engagement of all staff members but if you are not engaged yourself how can you ask others to be so? As a manager you need to establish what engages you and how visibly engaged you are with your work and company. Your levels of engagement have an effect on your employees as employees will spot if you are not really engaged and just going through the motions. So as a manager check how engaged you are and increase if necessary your own levels of engagement before trying to engage others with work and company.

Furthermore the levels of trust between a manager and his employees are critical for the success of the engagement process. If there is no trust then it will be difficult to engage the employees. Trust is something which doesn’t happen overnight it has to be nurtured over a period of time where a manager in his dealings with staff members has proven to be trustworthy, in effect he does what he says he will do and the manager is working both for the good of the company and the staff members. If you have a manager who is engaged himself and trustworthy then he could try to successfully engage his workers to increase their engagement themselves.

There is one more element which is important and that is integrity. Basically you are honest and will tell the truth when it matters, because if a manager has integrity you will trust him.

It shows the importance of the manager’s behaviour. You might say that this is too much for me as my behaviour can’t be held to scrutiny in such a way. Unfortunately as a leader and manager you need to be congruent in your day to day actions. That is the basic requirement to successfully engage others.

You might say this isn’t worth it. However I might remind you that in the seminar it was highlighted that research from the Hay Group finds that organisations with highly engaged employees outperform those with the most disengaged employees, by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction, and by 400% in revenue growth. It is pays as a manager to be trustworthy, have high levels of integrity and behave in a congruent manner.

The global financial crisis has, however, taken its toll on engagement, as employees endure pay freezes, benefit cuts and layoffs. As a result it is even more important to be trustworthy as a manager!