Protecting Poor Performers

March 03, 2005

When an employee lacks the necessary skills to perform adequately in the job, it's usually the manager's responsibility to do something about it, even if it means transferring or terminating the employee.

That doesn't always happen, however. In fact, some poorly performing employees linger in the job for a long time, making one mistake after another and consistently turning out poor quality work.

So where are the managers in these cases? Why aren't they taking appropriate action? Well actually, dealing with a poor performer isn't always so easy.

Consider your own experience. Have you ever allowed an employee to remain in their position even after you had already concluded they lack the knowledge skills or ability to ever perform well in the job, regardless of how much training you give them?

If so, why did you do it? Why didn't you just sit down one day, for example and say, "Joni, you're just not able to handle this job. I'm sorry, but we're going to have to make some changes."

No doubt, you had a good reason. Confronting an employee like this can be a painful experience, especially if you like the person and don't want to see them hurt.

Perhaps you felt partially responsible. After all, an effective hiring process should have prevented this situation from occurring. You may even feel sorry for the person for having put them into a job that's too difficult for them to handle.

Whatever the reason, you placed the relationship ahead of the business needs. You decided the employee's feelings were more important than lost productivity.

You're not the only one. This situation occurs more frequently than most managers would care to admit. I've been guilty of it myself, in fact.

After it happened to me a few times I realized these cases all followed a similar pattern. Once I discovered an employee couldn't perform certain tasks, even after ample coaching and training, I gradually began assigning that person less responsibility. I gave the person easy things to do while I delegated the important tasks to other, more capable employees. If there was no one else to delegate to, I performed them myself.

All the while, I denied there was a problem. I rationalized my behavior by playing up the employee's good qualities. For example, "At least he's dependable." Or "She has a great attitude."

Secretly, I wished the employee would find another job somewhere else. At least that way I wouldn't have to deal with the unpleasantness of forcing the person out.

What I was really doing was protecting a poor performer.

It wasn't that these employees couldn't do anything right. In fact, they did some things extremely well - just not what they were hired to do.

For me, this situation finally reached a breaking point. I had instructed one of my employees to come see me whenever she needed help with something. She did. Frequently. So much so, that after a while I began to feel like I was working for her instead of the other way around.

That's when I took a long hard look at the situation. The breakthrough for me came when I realized I was looking at the issue only from my own selfish viewpoint. I was concerned only about the fact that I couldn't rely on the employee and had to find other ways to get things done.

What I needed to do was stop thinking about how the employee's poor performance affected me and instead focus on what was really best for the employee.

You see, when we protect poor performers, we're not really doing them any favors.

Employees want to feel they are an important part of the organization - that their work is good and their contribution is valued. When you withhold assignments or take away responsibilities, you're actually robbing them of something extremely valuable - the satisfaction of doing a job well.

Employees who are in the wrong job need help finding their way into the right one. As their manager, you are in perhaps the best position of anyone to provide this help. You know their strengths and weaknesses. Also, you're probably more familiar with the range of jobs that require people with their skills.

Whenever you discover an employee has a serious weakness, first ask yourself how important is it? Can the person still make a valuable contribution? For example, most managers can work around a weakness for employees provided they have an abundance of skills in other areas.

However, if you sincerely believe that an employee is not a good match for the current position, then do yourself and your organization a service by helping the person find something else. Approach the situation as if you were the employee's career planning counselor.

Provide honest feedback. Tell employees what they're really good at and help them identify other places where those talents are needed. If you're not sure what the employee's strengths are, arrange for an employee assessment. There are plenty of assessment programs available online and most of them are relatively inexpensive. Is the employee detail-oriented? Good working with people? An effective public speaker? A good organizer? Whatever it is, share it. For instance, "You're really good at___. Have you thought of pursuing a job in___?"

Actively look for other job openings that you feel would be a good fit. If you can find a suitable opportunity in your own company, that's a win-win situation. Maybe you have a friend you can recommend them to.

Offer to provide a letter of recommendation. I once helped an employee write her resume for a particular job opening. And she was grateful for the help!

Keep in mind that, just because people find themselves in positions they're not well suited for doesn't mean they are failures. It means simply that they're misplaced.

When you become your employees' mentor and career coach, you not only help them, you also help yourself, and your organization.

Best regards,

Stephen Foster, Ph.D
Expert Supervisor, LLC
1493 Market Street
Tallahassee, FL 32312
(850) 893-5699

E-mail me at: Steve.Foster@ExpertSupervisor.com