When ‘doing OK’ is not OK!

Capability - poor work performance – discipline

Always one for the “bon mot” Mae West said that an ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises. She probably wasn’t talking about poor work performance (who knows) but it’s equally applicable. Under-performance at work is one of the most common complaints, but one of the areas least well tackled. Ask yourself: "are all my employees meeting all my workplace standards nearly all the time?"

If the answer to that is “No”, then you know that you have work to do or your business will simply go on leaking money.
In today’s demanding business environment too many employers are too willing to tolerate poor performance from staff. With the cost of employment higher than any time in recent history, turning in a merely adequate performance is no longer satisfactory. HR’s function is now more crucial than ever to ensure that ‘OK’ performance is raised to deliver 95% all the time. Are you prepared to grasp the nettle? You can’t afford not to!

It is essential to develop the ability to identify and tackle poor work performance in an effective timely fashion. Failure is costly. Have you ever thought about the effect of unmanaged poor work performance on the company’s margins?

The essence of being a manager is getting work done effectively through your team. It can be a tough job! The key components of managing performance successfully are:

• setting and communicating standards;
• regular feedback;
• correction where needed.

As a general rule poor performance is minor and it often falls below the radar. Some managers don’t even know that what they’re seeing is poor performance. Signs that you may have a poor performance problem include:

• poor productivity
• high number of quality failure problems
• mistakes
• accidents
• customer/ supplier/ colleague complaints
• costs are higher (or uncontrolled)
• profits are down
• not meeting budget or time constraints

One of the biggest giveaways is when you end up doing the work!

The ability to recognise and deal with poor work performance  is essential. Take action today.