Small Business Online

React and manage your company’s non performing employees

To avoid negative behavior of employees in an organization, HR Manager must understand why they end up performing low in an organization. One needs clear cut strategy and methods to manage this kind of behavior.

When employees face stress, deadlines, appraisals pressure and demands of personal life, some of them emerge tougher and winners while there are some who succumb to such pressures and are worn out soon. They exhibit lethargy, lack of interest in work and resentment against the employer.

Typically, these kind of mediocre performers are often considered as ‘deadbeat’ or ‘liability’ on the company. While they are not the kind of performers that the employer wants to reward, they aren’t underperformers either to be shown the door and ask them to leave. The mark of such employees is their lack of enthusiasm and passion. They perform only to meet deadlines, but do not seek career growth; they are averse to learning new things and inturm developing their skills.

Negative Impact on performance

Experts believe that such kind of employees usually ruin the learning, morale and performance of other employees. As it will be difficult for co-workers to escape from such negative impact, it is for the employers to deal with the problem. Experience and common sense says that if such employees are ignored or left to change by themselves, the workplace can soon turn indifferent to the company culture and even start disrespecting it.

The following is what the low performing employee does:

Passes improper comments about the organisation and its culture. Talks about the work negatively with co-workers during breaks and lunch time. Criticises company policies and spreads dissatisfaction in the workplace. Most employers are unsure of how to deal with such employees, who spell trouble for workplace positivism and morale.

How can we understand and manage our employees well?

Organizations need to figure out why there is such kind of behavioral change amongst employees. People tend to get disappointed when they find that things are not turning well for them and that there is nothing great happening for them anywhere.

As an HR Manager you will face difficulty in handling and understanding what has gone wrong with your people. The only reason for this is that people will not openly share with you or take ownership for any shortfalls in their work.

The employers are made victims because of the following:

They fail to recognise a troublesome employee. The employee spreads his discontentment to others. Dealing with such an employee requires time, tact and effort.

The following measures will help employers handle such problems efficiently:

Work towards reducing communication gap by discussions:

Create an open environment culture with employees. Talking to the point will alarm the employee to a greater extent. This will eventually result in getting relevant information from the employee and his issues are addressed before been getting spread. If the employee gets confident that the organization or the HR professional will work towards solving his concerns, he would definitely work towards improving his shortcomings at work.

Customised incentives may help him strive better and overcome sluggishness. In short, clear communication and intolerance to negative attitude can help smarten the worker.

Set goals:

Sit with the employee and help him understand what the organization expects out of him and how he can set easy achievable goals for himself in line with the organization’s objectives. Try to recognize any act of positivity which will inturn help in boosting his morale and eradicating negative behavior.

Check out the basic information:

Need specific training and development programs will definitely put the employee into the next level where they will not only gain confidence and perform better but will also specialize in his current work profile.

Do a timely Review:

Once the communication and training bit is done, the manager must review the employee’s work to see for progress or digress. In case of poor performance and unchangeable attitudes, the employee must be warned firmly. It should be clear that disinterested work patterns and attitudes will not be tolerated and will be subjected to further disciplinary action.

Bid him Good bye:

A strict action must be taken against him if he doesn’t change inspite of continuous efforts and help from the HR professional. He can also be terminated from his services. To avoid any heated arguments try to communicate the same to him privately and calmly. Try to be specific in highlighting the major causes which led to such a decision. Clearly tell him that his negative attitude is spoiling the organizational culture and his poor performance is affecting company’s growth. It is seen most of the time that managing such termination is an easy task as these employees are already prepared for the worst.

What can be concluded?

The take away from such an incident is that the employer conveys to his people how much he values his culture and that he will not compromise on anything and retain its dignity. Further, the organization needs to strengthen its recruitment strategy to avoid hiring people with any negative mindset.

Learn more about recent trends in human resource management. Stop by Amit Kumar’s site where you can find out all about corporate culture development