It’s exciting to hire a new employee!
The workplace is full of promise about the new ideas, skills, and energy this person will bring to the team. But sometimes . . . the honeymoon is over quickly.
The incorrect strategy that many managers use when this happens is . . . wishful thinking! Don’t do this! You must address the situation immediately.
You need to engage the employee once you notice that their performance is not meeting your standards. Be supportive, yet clear on the standards, e.g.: “Rob, let’s have a talk. Your performance on ‘X Task’ is not what we typically expect. I am going to work with you to help you reach our standards.”
Then you need to explore what is going on. A good place to start is to see if the employee fully understands the task and the performance standard. Then, try to figure out if they have the skill to do the job. If not, then some additional training may be the answer. If you go this route, then provide encouragement and follow-up to see if they are on track after training.
The next thing to explore, actually, is you. Are you managing this employee properly? One check list I like to use for myself is the Gallup Q-12 which you can learn more about here. Use this as a diagnostic for yourself. Maybe you need to up your management game.
If you think you are managing the employee properly and the training does not work, then you need to consider that they might not have the innate talent to do the job. This is a bummer because you and they both thought they had the talent to do this when they were hired. You might consider having them take Gallup’s talent assessment tool, the Clifton StrengthsFinder. This could give you clues to their talents as it relates to this job.
Perhaps you need to move this person to a different role on your team that better matches their natural talents. If that is not possible then you may need to coach them out of your organization into a role somewhere else that is a better fit. You can do this as compassionately as possible.
These are difficult, but very important conversations to have. The worst thing you can do is ignore an underperforming employee. It sends a bad message to everyone. By addressing the situation, you let everyone know that your commitment to excellence is real.
