Managers - Managing Underperformance

Catalpa’s success is dependent on its day to day goals and project requirements being achieved. This is only attainable if the standards of performance and behavior expected of our employees are met or exceeded.

While most employees aim to perform well in their job, there may be times when employees may fail to meet the required performance standards.

This Manager Guide - Managing Underperformance outlines how to go about supporting staff who are not meeting expectations.

Productive employees meet deadlines, work well with other team members. It’s critical for Catalpa’s bottom line that employees perform their jobs competently, but it’s also important for overall staff morale and engagement and relations with each other and our clients.

This document lays out some guidelines for dealing with poor performance, but we should acknowledge that there is no golden rule for doing this. ‘One size does not fit all’ when it comes to managing performance and each situation is unique, with its own history, personalities, challenges, and priorities. We work in complex environments where our staff deal with issues that we may neither fully understand nor know how to help.

Managing a poorly performing staff member can be challenging and requires a mindful approach. It’s a unique skill that takes practice. The good news? It’s something that you can learn.

Addressing underperformance can be challenging for both managers and employees. Failure to address underperformance appropriately, sensitively and promptly, can have a significant impact on your workplace culture and productivity. The issue is unlikely to go away on its own, and other employees may lose motivation if they have to carry the burden of poor performing colleagues.

As an organization and manager of people, we can’t accept underperformance. It’s frustrating, time consuming, and it can demoralize the other people on your team.

But what do you do about an employee who isn’t performing? How do you help turn around the problematic behavior? And how long do you let it go on?

Hopefully this guide will help you manage underperformers step by step.