PERFORMANCE STANDARDS VARY BY THE KIND of business you are in, and may even vary by departments within the same company, because of the variety of tasks involved.
Every employee you are managing must know what the expected standards of work are. You create problems for yourself when you discipline an employee on the basis of vague work standards. Doing so will weaken your position in the process and easily lead to genuine misunderstandings. You can’t get by with a nebulous approach to performance standards.
Let’s assume you’ve done a satisfactory job of establishing standards for each job. In all probability, those standards are written into a job description. The job description indicates the elements of accountability that apply to the job, which allows you to measure the individual against those standards. Now you must have methods within your area of responsibility that allow you to be continuously aware of how people are performing in relation to the standards. You cannot operate on the assumption that unless you’re hearing complaints from customers or other departments, the performance is acceptable. By the time such warning signals arrive, severe damage may already have been done.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Your attitude about your team members’ performance is crucial. The place and time to convey that attitude is when they first step into the job. They need to know exactly what is expected of them both during their training period and once they have completed it. During the training period, you’ll accept less in the way of quality and quantity. Make sure that during training, you have things structured so the trainee’s errors don’t reach beyond your own department.
Feedback is critical to proper and effective discipline. You need to design your systems so performance that is below agreed standards comes to your attention quickly. It is vital that you know as soon as possible when performance is substandard so you can address it immediately. In the following discussion of discipline procedures, let’s assume that you’ve set clear standards and that the employee knows and understands those standards. Furthermore, you have an adequate method of feedback so that you know when substandard performance is a problem.
NEVER MAKE IT PERSONAL
One of the oldest rules of management is that employee discipline should always be done in private. Never humiliate an employee, even in cases of dismissal. The employee must always be made to understand that what is being discussed is the performance, not the person.
Too many managers, at all levels of experience, turn a discussion of poor performance into a personal attack. In most cases, it’s probably not done maliciously; this kind of approach is simply not thought through.
The following opening gambits often get the discussion off to a terrible start:
▪ “You are making far too many errors.”
▪ “I don’t know what your problem is. I’ve never had anyone screw up on this job like you.”
▪ “Your performance is so substandard that we don’t have a word to describe it.”
These are outrageous statements, but attacks like these are uttered every working day somewhere. The managers may be right on target, but they have just made their problems worse than they need to be.
This approach will lead to employees feeling that they are being personally attacked. When attacked, our natural tendency is to defend ourselves, and the defensive barriers of the employee will almost certainly go up. Now both parties to the conversation have to fight through these barriers to get back to the problem. Give employees the benefit of the doubt. You might say, “I know we both want you to be successful, so let’s talk about how we can improve the results you are getting.”
Address the substandard performance by viewing it as the result of some misunderstanding about how the work should be done. Perhaps the employee has missed something in the training process, and this has created a systems deficiency that is causing the work to fall below the agreed standards. By taking this approach, you inform the employee from the outset that you’re talking about the performance and not the person.
GIVE AND TAKE
You should have a conversation, not deliver a monologue. Many managers do all the talking, which usually results in resentment in the party on the receiving end. You need to encourage the employee’s participation in the conversation. Without it there is a good chance you won’t solve the problem.
Be careful, now, and don’t go overboard! Some executives, in their effort to be scrupulously fair, become so cautious and tactful that the employee leaves their office expecting to get a raise for outstanding performance. You have to make certain that your employee understands that the work is not up to standards. How you say it, though, is critically important.
When bringing the employee into your office, put him at ease. This may not seem like a big deal to you, but to an employee who may not have spent much time in your office, you’re the boss and being called into your presence may be a frightening prospect. Therefore, do everything you can to make the other person comfortable.
Encourage the employee to participate in the discussion early in the game. You might start off with a statement like this: “Derek, you’ve been with us three months now and I think it’s time we had a conversation about how you’re doing. As you know, I have a great interest in your being successful on this job. How do you feel things are going?”
By using this approach, you encourage an employee who is not performing up to standards to bring up the subject himself. It seldom comes as a surprise to an employee to learn that specified standards are not being met. Surprise is likely only if the employee has never been told what is expected. If that is the case, you really have some serious problems—problems of training and communication.
As the employee describes how things are going, you direct the conversation to the standards that are not being met. For example, you ask, “Do you think you’re getting close to the standards we’ve established for experienced employees?” If the answer is yes, you could ask, “Do you believe you’re performing at the same level as an experienced employee?” If the answer is again yes, then the employee may be out of touch with reality. The point is to continue asking questions of this type until you get the kind of response that will lead you into a discussion of the quality of the work.
Obviously, if all your tactful efforts have not resulted in the employee bringing up the crucial subject, you have no choice but to insert it into the conversation yourself. To the employee who persists in asserting that things are going well, you could say, “That’s an interesting observation you’ve made about the quality of the work, because that is not what I am seeing.” Why do you suppose my information is different from yours?” You then have the matter on the table for discussion.
ELIMINATE MISUNDERSTANDING
As you proceed further into the conversation, use techniques that ensure the employee knows what’s expected. Get feedback on what you’ve mutually agreed upon, so there can be no misunderstanding later about what was said.
It is always a good idea to write a memorandum at the conclusion of the conversation and place it in the employee’s file. This becomes particularly important if you are managing a lot of people and it’s possible that six months from now you won’t remember the details of the conversation.
THE PRIMACY OF THE PERSON
There are problems about an employee’s performance that cannot be separated from the person. When talking about the quality or quantity of an employee’s work, it’s obvious that the techniques discussed in this chapter can help in establishing firmly in the employee’s mind that a difference exists between your criticism of the work and your view of the person. But with certain attitudinal problems, it’s more difficult to make the distinction, and in many cases it can’t be done.
Let’s assume you have a highly satisfactory employee who can’t seem to get to work on time. Disciplining unsatisfactory employees is easier than disciplining a problem employee like this one whom you obviously want to keep. What happens in these situations is obvious. If you allow the employee the privilege of coming in late every day, you’re going to create a morale problem with the rest of the people who adhere to the office hours, no matter how superior that person’s performance. (This obviously does not apply if your office has flexible work hours.)
In talking with the satisfactory employee about this problem, one of the better approaches is to explain the management difficulties you’d have if every employee ignored the working hours. You couldn’t tolerate that situation. In addition, the employee is creating difficulties for himself. You can then go into the discussion in some detail and start working on a solution.
You may find that the employee is dealing with a recurring problem that is difficult or even impossible to solve. A common example is childcare challenges. Sometimes childcare facilities have restrictive policies or change them so that it impacts an employee’s ability to be timely. If the employee’s child is sick, he may have to take the child to a different childcare center. If the facility for sick children is out of the way, it can make it impossible for the employee to be on time. You may need to solve this kind of problem by changing the employee’s hours. Having him start half an hour later may solve the problem.
Let’s follow through with the problem of the tardy employee, because it happens often enough that you’ll eventually have to face it.
Most conscientious employees who are doing a satisfactory job will react positively to your statements. You may notice that for the next ten days or so they are getting to work on time. At that point, you may be feeling good about your success in managing people. You’ll find, however, that when the pressure is off, the reformed employee may start coming in late again. You can’t take a casual approach about this and assume it was just an unusual set of circumstances. All your subordinates must be made to know you expect them to be on time every day.
The first time this happens after your initial conversation, you again have a discussion with the offender. This doesn’t have to be a full-blown dialogue of the same length and detail as the first one; all you need to do is reinforce what you said previously. There may be a sound reason for the recent lateness, and it could be that the second conversation is all that is needed. If you can get to the point where the employee is coming to work on time for approximately six months, you may assume you’ve changed that person’s work patterns enough so that you no longer have a serious problem.
DISCIPLINE FOR A GOOD EMPLOYEE GONE BAD
Let’s look at a step-by-step case study regarding the use of employee time that is as challenging an employee-disciplinary situation as you are likely to face. Kelly, one of your direct reports, does executive coaching for your consulting firm. She goes to client sites and works with senior managers one-on-one, helping them with their managerial skills and giving advice on project implementation. She usually spends one day a week at a client site for a month or two. You have always gotten the best feedback from the clients about Kelly. She is always in high demand. You consider her to be one of your best staff members.
Then, things change. You begin to receive feedback from these same clients, and new ones, that her short breaks of five or ten minutes are turning into an hour or more a couple of times a day, and these breaks are not during lunch. After a couple of weeks listening to these comments, you set up a meeting with Kelly and tell her of the complaints you are getting about her. You explain that it makes her and your company look unprofessional when she leaves a senior executive hanging, and that these client companies are paying big bucks for your services. You also explain that the executives have scheduled their day around her being there.
Kelly doesn’t believe she is taking such long breaks and flatly denies it. You try to open the floor to her and have her discuss anything that is troubling her, work related or personally, but she just keeps saying that everything is perfect and that she cannot imagine that she is taking such long breaks. You decide on an action plan. Kelly will notify the client when she needs five or ten minutes (she’s a smoker), look at her watch, tell the client what time it is and what time she will return.
You think the problem is over. But it isn’t. You continue to receive the same complaints from clients, so you have a couple of additional discipline sessions with Kelly, which lead nowhere. You even suggest that Kelly visit an outside counselor, at company expense, if she wants or needs to talk to someone. She refuses your offer. The same behavior continues. You give her one last opportunity to change. You tell her if you get one more complaint on the same issue she will be gone. You get several more and Kelly is terminated.
The situation just described is one that many people would view as a failure of management skills. That’s wrong. Not every personnel problem can be solved by accommodation. In the case study described here, you did everything you could to remedy the situation. You gave Kelly every opportunity to address her behavior, to open up to you concerning whatever problems she may have; you worked out a plan for her to follow, and you gave her several chances to change her behavior. Since nothing you did worked, the only solution you had was to get someone to replace her, no matter how valuable an employee she was at one time.
OTHER PROBLEMS
It’s likely that you’ll have other problems of a similar nature, such as people spending too much time on the internet for non-work-related activities, consistently overstaying the lunch hour, or just failing to show up. Needless to say, you don’t run a sweatshop, and everyone will have some issue at one time or another. What is critical is dealing effectively with chronic offenders who create management problems for you and the organization.
One of the most challenging problems for a manager to handle is personal hygiene. For example, suppose you have a young woman in your department who has an unpleasant body odor. Other employees are making sly comments about her. Even worse, they are avoiding her. This is unacceptable because their work depends on communicating with her often during the day. Her body odor has become a business issue and so you have to deal with it.
Rather than do it yourself, you may want to arrange to have someone in human resources talk directly to the employee. The reason is not to avoid a difficult situation, but rather to spare the woman embarrassment every time she sees you, along with the misery of being constantly reminded of the uncomfortable conversation. By having someone in human resources talk to her away from her work area, you might solve the problem and also be able to salvage an otherwise satisfactory employee. If the embarrassment is too great in a delicate situation like this, you may lose the employee.
A SIMPLE PERFORMANCE-IMPROVEMENT TOOL
There is a simple but effective tool that can help you provide a problem employee with a clear understanding of what he needs to do to improve his performance. When things are not going well, it is particularly important that there be absolute clarity. For the greatest impact, create this tool while you are having a one-on-one meeting with the underperforming employee.
The tool requires a single sheet of blank paper. Regular copy paper is perfect. Fold the sheet into thirds as if you were going to put it into an envelope, then unfold it. Draw a horizontal line at each of the two folds. You now have a blank sheet of paper divided into three approximately equal sections.
Explain to the employee that you are creating an improvement plan for him. At the top of the first section write Strengths. Title the middle section Areas for Improvement and the lower section Goals. Now ask the employee to help you fill in the three sections. Obviously, you need to have a good idea of what you want in each section, but the employee’s input is critical and can offer valuable insights.
You are creating the plan with the employee’s input. It is your job to filter the employee’s suggestions as appropriate. If he suggests something you don’t agree with, use his suggestion to fuel a conversation.
Let’s say the employee states that one of his strengths is his ability to work well in a team setting, but you believe this is not the case. You may want to start by saying, “Now tell me why you say that.” His input may cause you to revise your opinion—or it may not. If not, tell him that based on your observations and feedback from some of his colleagues, you would like to include an ability to work effectively in a team setting in his areas for improvement. Keep the tone constructive and emphasize that the goal of this exercise is to help him succeed. To be successful, he needs to have an accurate understanding of what he needs to work on.
With an area for improvement identified, now agree to a specific goal related to this issue to put in the goals section. An example may be a rating of 3.5 or better out of 5 on the anonymous peer ratings that are done at the conclusion of each team initiative. Each goal must have a date associated with it for the achievement of that goal.
Keep the goals simple and clear so they leave no room for misunderstanding. Quantify them as much as possible. Examples would be a minimum error rate or a maximum number of days missed.
You will often find that the employee is really tough on himself in assessing his areas for improvement and reluctant to identify his strengths. He will also commonly bring up topics that may not have occurred to you. Done well, this process can be constructive and nonthreatening.
Of course, the most important part of the exercise is the goals. The goals give the employee a clear understanding of what he needs to achieve within the agreed-upon time frame.
Once there is agreement on the plan, both you and the employee sign and date it at the bottom of the page. Now, provide the employee with a copy and agree to the specific date and time you will meet again to review his progress. Allow no more than a month until the next meeting. If the situation is particularly dire, meet again even sooner.
You have now made your life much easier. When you meet again it will be abundantly clear whether the employee is improving. Reviewing the goals and his performance will be a straightforward process. Ideally, the employee will have achieved all of them. Even if he has, you still want to go through this process at least one more time to make sure the team member stays on track. Should he achieve all his goals a second time, there is value in going through the process a third time. The difference is that this time you will probably wait longer until you meet again.
If the employee is improving, lengthen the time between meetings. If he is not improving or is deteriorating, shorten the time.
If after a few updated improvement plans and follow-up meetings you are not seeing sufficient progress, your path is clear. The employee has made it apparent that his skills and the position he is in are not a match. This is why this is a powerful tool. Used correctly, it leaves little room for misunderstanding. You either have a team member who is improving or one who needs to move on. It also significantly increases the chances that the employee will see the need to try something different if his performance has not improved sufficiently.
DISCIPLINARY TECHNIQUES
Let’s assume you have a highly satisfactory employee whose work sharply deteriorates. Needless to say, you’re continually communicating with the employee about the deterioration. You want to retain the employee, but you find that your words are not being taken seriously. In a situation like this one, you may recommend zero salary increase for the employee for that year, with a full explanation as to why you’re doing it. Inform the employee in advance that if the work doesn’t get better, there’ll be no increase in pay. Having made that threat or stated that possibility of action, you must then follow through on it so that you don’t lose credibility. This is exactly when you want to use the process of improvement plans and one-on-one meetings described above.
Another disciplinary technique you can use is to put the employee on probation. Make it clear that the person’s work deterioration needs to be corrected, and you want to give the employee every opportunity to correct it. You must make it perfectly clear that the substandard level of work being delivered cannot be allowed to continue. Putting an employee on probationary status makes it quite clear that her job is at risk and performance must improve.
New employees in a company often start on probationary status, either in line with standard company policy or as individual cases. Many companies use a ninety-day probationary period. Employees doing satisfactory work at the end of that time are taken off the probationary rolls and become regular employees. It’s also customary to give a modest salary increase in recognition of satisfactory completion of the probationary course. If the work is not satisfactory at that point, the employee should anticipate being terminated. Again, it should never come as a surprise. If it is a surprise, you have not done a good job of communicating with the employee.