Any organization is as successful or efficient as the employees that are a part of it. No amount of technology or product variety and quality can substitute the efficiency or make up for the inefficiency of its employees. Every organization has its employees divided into largely three categories according to their performance: Excellent or Exceptional (10-15%), Good or Satisfactory (70-80%), and Not Satisfactory or Poor (10-15%).
This article is to discuss about the employees who fall under the third category, the ones who do not meet the expectations of the organization – the under/non performers.
Various factors which influence the performance of an individual are role clarity, functional knowledge, job knowledge, attitude,self-confidence, motivation & encouragement by superiors, coaching & training,periodical feedback, & above all the facility & environment in which he/she is working on a day to day basis. If any of these are not adequately met, it will have a direct impact on the individual and his/her performance.
The question is how do you handle employees who are underachievers? And the challenge is how to develop and motivate them to perform at a minimum expected level as per organization performance standards.
Below listed are some of the problem areas as to why employees do not perform and some possible solutions based on our experience over decades:
Under performance or any performance problems of an individual can be due to lack of knowledge and understanding of task/objective or lack of skills/ability to perform. Such problems need to be understood and alleviated by assessing and conducting off the job courses external to the organization as well as internal courses run by the organization. There should also be on the job programs both online and offline to aid the employees. Coaching & counseling by the immediate boss could be also an effective technique. Employees should be encouraged to read and learn the task concerned, and if that is still not adequate the ability of the employee should be judged and be given an appropriate new task/job. If the problem is concerning the attitude or personality of the employee they should be subjected to counseling. Such employees could simply be lazy, lack interest or ability to understand importance of the task, or it could be rooted with low self-esteem or confidence. Another strong cause for under-performance is lack of motivation to achieve the targets. In such cases managers should be proactive and take up coaching their employees actively. Targets should be improved or redefined, more responsibility should be delegated and training should be given to improve performance of employees. Another effective method to keep employees motivated and efficient is regular job rotation within the related functions.This enables an employee to learn and acquire cross functional knowledge and skills and this impacts positively on his/her confidence. For more sensitive issues concerning personal problems affecting performance of an employee,management should be sensitive and induce counseling for such employees for them to find a suitable solution to overcome such problems. Overall management should encourage team building and involvement to make the employees undertake the task at hand responsibly and complete it successfully for the benefit of the organization as well the employee himself/herself. Management now-a-days also incorporates funding higher education for employees so they can improve their performance by getting a better understanding of the field and subject which will in turn benefit the organization itself. Finally, with all these sincere efforts by the company, if the employee concerned does not change and improve, the company should be prepared to take any tough decision including separation of such an employee from the company for long term benefit to the organization. This will also give a clear message to other such employees that the company will provide necessary opportunity for learning and development for employees to perform which in turn will enable the company to sustain and grow in the business.
The management of the organization has to take these measures to estimate and improve the capabilities of the employees so the number of employees in the underachiever category diminishes and the increased number of effective employees builds an even stronger organization.
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