The post 5 Ways HR Managers Can Deal With Underperforming Employees appeared first on Career Point Kenya.Click on the TITLE link for the original.
By Mark Namaswa,
It happens many times; an employee fails to deliver on his job, shows lack of enthusiasm and with time, begins to raise concern among his workmates and employers. How can this employee’s case be handled?
Should he or she be dismissed right away? We examine the cause of action from a HR practitioner:
1. Investigating the Cause for Underperformance
“Before you embark on any disciplinary or intervention measure, you must first understand the reason behind an employee failing to perform according to expectations,” says Annette Kimitei, Human Resource Manager, Senaca Group.
“The reasons for underperformance are many and could include lack of capacity on the employee’s side; he might not have the requisite skills to do his work.”
In other cases, she adds, an employee may have work-related or personal challenges that are keeping him from performing, also find out what these are.
“Again you might find an employee with the capacity to perform but is still not doing so. This also needs finding out; is it a personal matter, family, is he sick? You have to tread with some sensitivity,” says Ms Kimitei.
“But if you are able to establish that this person is simply refusing to work, then you have to take some disciplinary measures.”
2. Re-training an Employee
According to Ms Kimitei, this measure applies once it has been established that an employee has capacity issues such as lack of training in the tasks he was hired to perform.
“What you can do is attach him to a mentor at the workplace or any other more experienced person who can be able to take him through the paces of what he is expected to perform,” she says. “After a while, re-evaluate and see whether he is catching up or not.”
3. Introducing Performance Contracts
These have caused a lot of jitters in the civil service in Kenya and according to Ms. Kimitei, after an employer has exhausted all measures aimed at getting the underperforming worker to improve, hand him a performance contract becomes an option.
“This will ensure both of you keep track of the improvement in his output or the lack of it,” she says. “And thereafter, the performance contract terms can be checked from time to time for the sake of evaluating the progress made so far.”
4. Verbal and Written Warnings
“It is the most common measure taken for work misconduct regarding performance,” observes Ms. Kimitei. “Usually a first warning is given then a second one before disciplinary options are explored.
However, the main challenge is that it is often not admissible legally, to later dismiss someone based on verbal warnings.”
Written Warnings
“A written record must be kept in an employee’s file as a reference point that he was once or twice warned about his underperformance at such-and-such a date, just in case,” she says.
An important point to note, Ms. Kimitei points out, is that written warnings too have an expiry date. “The most common time lapse is a year,” she says. “You cannot pull out a file and tell someone that you warned them in 1998 yet it is 2014. Moreover, according to what I have gathered from observation, it is not always advisable to rush into writing warning letters.”
5. Finally Dismissal
When nothing else seems to work and the employee cannot perform despite all the interventions, this is usually the last method to resort to. It takes place after all the warnings have been exhausted and all avenues explored.
As Martin Githaiga, HR Consultant – Corporate Staffing Services says, this measure follows two written warnings which will have been issued within the same financial year.
“Performance is rated on annual basis and escalated cases of underperformance which may undermine a firm’s business, either financially or reputation-wise might warrant summary dismissal.”
“I cannot say for sure that when a worker underperforms, he or she should be met by this or that measure,” says Ms Kimitei. “In some cases just one instance of gross misconduct will warrant dismissal. So every situation will require a different measure to be taken as no two situations can be treated in exactly the same way.”
The post 5 Ways HR Managers Can Deal With Underperforming Employees appeared first on Career Point Kenya.Click on the TITLE link for the original.
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