My employee is not performing! What can I do? Having employees who are not performing can be particularly frustrating for employers, particularly trade related businesses. You’ve quoted a job on the basis that the job will get done in a certain timeframe. So if you have an employee who is consistently late to work, slow back from lunch, on their phone during the day and generally not working at an acceptable pace then this going to have a significant impact on your ability to get the job done right in the quoted time frame. Wages are a painter’s largest operating expense. So, if you have an employee who is underperforming and only operating at 60% then effectively you are losing 40% of their wages every year. This is going to have a significant impact on your business’s bottom line.
• Personal issues. Employee might be experiencing some challenges in their personal life that is impacting on their concentration and focus at work.
Underperformance. What is it and how should you handle it?
Now that we know the causes, what can we do about it?
Firstly, what is underperformance? Underperformance is basically when an employee is not performing to an acceptable or expected level. They may be failing to complete required tasks, taking longer than necessary to complete the tasks, frequent absences or poor time keeping. It can also include having a poor attitude.
• Not feeling comfortable or confident in their tasks. They don’t feel confident so they put it off hoping it’ll either go away or someone else will do it. • Lack of accountability. When employees don’t feel they are being held accountable for their tasks/ performance then their performance levels can start to slide. Once this starts to happen, it can become a slippery slope where their lowest performance level becomes the new standard.
Tackle the issue early In all cases where you have an underperforming employee, you should address the issue early. Initially this can be a simple informal conversation such as:
What causes underperformance? There can be several reasons why an employee is performing poorly but the most common we find are:
“Hey, John. I notice that you weren’t able to get that job finished yesterday. Was there something holding you up on it?”
• Poor engagement. The employee isn’t engaged in their role or their tasks. This might be borne out of boredom, complacency, lack of interest, poor relationships with manager or colleagues or not understanding the importance of the task.
Or “Hi, John. I notice you’ve been late a few times this week. Is there something going on I should be aware of? Could you please make sure you’re here at 8am going forward as when you’re not here on time it pushes our whole schedule out.”
40 | Aussie Painting Contractor
