HR Department
  • Home
  • Did you Know?
  • Our Services
    • NEW: Mediation
    • HR Audit
    • Implementation
    • HR Support Service
    • HR Services
  • Our Experts
  • Testimonials
  • The HR Advisor
  • Contact Us
  • Login

5 Steps to Tackle Employee Performance Issues Before They Get Out of Hand

2/7/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
We’ve all seen it before: A previously motivated and strong employee just seems to switch off and stop caring about the job they do. Instead of being first into the office, they stroll in just in time for a coffee break; their once hawk like eye for detail is replaced with careless, substandard work with all the bearings of Homer Simpson. While this may happen for an infinite number of reasons, the fact remains that it will impact of your other employees, client relationships and overall business. But just what can you do to address the issue??

If you ever find yourself in this position, as an employer you should be quite rightly concerned as to the fact that this employees standards of work and punctuality are slipping below the standard that you expect from an them.  Whilst no employer wants to get into a disciplinary situation there are times when you have no option but to confront the problem, ideally following a set Disciplinary Procedure, that will hopefully result in an improvement by the employee.

First things first, you should refer to the disciplinary procedure outlined in your employee handbook. Whilst there is no obligation on an employer to have a disciplinary procedure under the 1977 Unfair Dismissals Act an employee must be advised of the procedures that will be used for dismissal within 28 days of commencement of employment. 

It is worth remembering that the objective of a disciplinary procedure is to allow the employee to improve his or her performance and conduct and is not a form of punishment. You should avoid invoking a disciplinary process with the sole purpose of dismissing an employee.  Unfortunately a lot of employers wait until a situation has got so bad that they see dismissal as the only outcome but if a problem is dealt with early and correctly it can often be resolved.  Furthermore an employer should always exhaust all efforts to allow the situation to improve before resorting to a dismissal and all of the inherent risks associated with that decision.

As I mentioned, nipping the issue in the bud early on is key to avoiding, often unnecessary, more dramatic measures later on. By taking the appropriate action now you are increasing the likelihood of resolving the problem and avoiding unnecessary confrontation.  This is even more relevant where you don’t have a formal policy in place as if the situation escalates or where there is a lack of “procedural fairness” it is almost a certainty that a tribunal or court would find against you as an employer for unfair dismissal.

If this is the first problem you’ve ever had with a particular employee, the first step should be an informal discussion.  Basically, it would just be a meeting between you and the employee in question (or with her manager if there is a manager) where you could just point out that one or two situations that have arisen where the employees work and punctuality have not been up to the level you require and re-iterate what you expect of him or her in their role and how they should improve.  You might find out that there is something outside of the workplace that is causing the problems that might explain the change of behaviour.

This meeting should be held in private and you should make sure you have sufficient time to deal with the issues.  Reduce any chance of interruptions by either meeting out of the salon or at a time when it is not too busy.

You should point out that this is merely a preliminary step but if the situation continues to deteriorate you will have no option but to take a more formal approach next time.  Of course the employee should be given an opportunity to put forward his or her own views or an explanation.  Ultimately you should agree the steps required to improve the situation including a timeframe for the situation to be monitored that should be reasonable and allow for an improvement to take place.

Once you have agreed the steps required you should confirm your discussion in writing and ask the employee to agree so there is no ambiguity and agree to meet in say 2 weeks time to see if there have been improvements.  Hopefully, as in the majority of cases where early intervention is taken the problem usually resolves itself.

5 Steps to Remember:

1. Confront the situation as early as practicable-don’t wait until it gets so bad that you see no alternative but to fire the employee;

2. Keep in mind the disciplinary process is intended to improve the behaviour not act as a punishment;

3. Make sure the employee is given an opportunity to give an explanation-ask her if she feels she is happy with her performance;

4. Try and agree the steps required and a suitable time frame for the employee’s behaviour to improve;

5. Make sure you follow up on the agreed steps and meet to review the situation again within the agreed time frame.

The contents of this article are necessarily expressed in broad terms and limited to general information rather than detailed analyses or legal advice. Specialist professional advice should always be obtained to address legal and other issues arising in specific contexts.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    Absenteeism
    Agile Management
    Anger
    Annual Leave
    Appointments
    Big Data
    Bullying
    Bullying In The Workplace
    Business
    BYOD
    Collaboration
    Communication
    Company Culture
    Compulsory Retirement
    Conflict Resolution
    Corporate Culture
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    Cyber Bullying
    Data Protection
    Device Policy
    Digital
    Digital Transformation
    Disciplinary Procedures
    Discrimination
    Diversity
    Dress Code
    Emotional Intelligence
    Employee Benefits
    Employee Diversity
    Employee Engagement
    Employee Performance
    Employee Relations
    Employee Resignation
    Employee Retention
    Employee Rights
    Employee Wellbeing
    Employer Branding
    Employment Contract
    Equality
    Flexible Working Hours
    Freelance
    Freelancer Management
    Freelancing
    Gender
    Gig Economy
    Health And Safety
    Hiring Process
    HR
    HR Automation
    HRLocker
    HR Paper Work
    HR Performance
    HR Tips
    Human Resources
    Incentives
    Inclusion
    Independent Contractor
    In-house
    Innovation
    Intelectual Property
    Intern
    Jargon
    Just Culture
    L&D
    Leadership
    Learning & Development
    Long Term Illness
    Management
    Managers
    McDonalds
    Mediation
    Mentorship
    Millenials
    Motivating Staff
    Music
    Negative Employees
    Office Romance
    Onboarding
    Outsourced HR
    Paid Paternity Benefit
    Parental Leave
    Parenting
    Part Time
    Part-time
    Passive-aggressive
    Paternity Leave
    Paternity Leave Policy
    Pay Gap
    Pensions
    People Operations
    Poaching Employees
    Policy
    Problem Employee
    Productivity
    Profit
    Protected Disclosures Act
    Recruitment
    Redundancy
    Retirement
    Role Of HR
    Salary Transparency
    Sexual Harrassment
    Sick Leave
    Sick Pay
    Sick Policy
    Skills
    Skills Shortage
    Social Media
    Social Media Policy
    Staff Burnout
    Staff Engagement
    Staff Retention
    Staff Training
    Strategy
    Success
    Talent
    Talent Acquisition
    Talent Retention
    Team
    Teamwork
    Tech In HR
    The Jungle Book
    Training
    Trust
    Unfair Dismissal
    Vacation
    Whistleblower
    Work Arrangements
    Working Parents
    Workplace
    Workplace Bullying
    Workplace BYOD Policy
    Workplace Conflict
    Workplace Discrimination
    Workplace Harassment
    Workplace Health
    Work Related Stress
    Zero Hour Contract

    RSS Feed

HR Department, 49 Hollybank Avenue, Lower Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland.
 
Phone : +353 87 852 7723
E-mail: [email protected]

Registered in Ireland under company number 348834

Testimonials

Fallon and Byrne

“As a medium –sized business, we could not justify having an in-house HR person. The HR department provided the perfect solution for us, giving us access to all of the expert advice we needed on an outsourced basis"

READ MORE!
Website by Chevron Studio