Terminate or Performance Manage

This week, I received a call form a painting contractor seeking my advice on terminating his employees. His accountant had reviewed his books and advised that his employees weren’t completing work in an efficient and timely manner which was impacting heavily on this business’s viability. The Accountant’s solution was to terminate these employees and get new ones in that would do the job more efficiently and effectively. The contractor then rang me asking how he would go about terminating if not his whole workforce, then a large percentage of them.

Now, I get that having employees who are under performing can be particularly frustrating for employers. Tackling underperformance is one of my biggest champions as a HR consultant but even if there was cause to terminate these employees, how was this going to fix the problem. I asked the contractor can you finish the projects you have lined up by yourself or with a reduced team? His answer was a straight out No. therein lies the problem in the Building and Construction industries, particularly painting. You need employees to complete the projects but finding qualified, competent and efficient employees – that you can afford! – is the bane of many business owner. Whilst the Accountant meant well, I knew, as did the Contractor, that finding replacement painters in a short period of time was going to be next to impossible which would’ve meant that the Contractor would lose those projects.

So, what should this Contractor do? Certainly, his business cannot afford for him to continue on the path he is on so changes need to be made.

He needs to sit down with his employees both at an individual and team level and discuss his concerns. Be open and upfront here. I’ve been to the Accountant and he says we’re not performing to the level we need to. We need to either raise our prices, reduce our expenses or increase our output and efficiency. Seek your employees input and buy in. A good employee will understand and jump on board. The ones that don’t? Well, they’ll most likely be the first to be let go.

Implement a plan. Relook at your quoting and work flow practices? Are there changes and improvements that can be made here to ensure the job is being quoted correctly, everyone has the tools and resources they need when they need them and holds ups and delays are kept to a minimum.

Set clear expectations and timeframes. Things will always go wrong and there will always be delays or blow outs, but by continually assessing & reassessing them you can get these down to a fine art. It also then becomes clear if there is a weak link in your process or team. Which you can then address with knowledge and certainty.

Now that you’ve identified and set out the expectations, make sure that you tackle any issues or concerns early. This will ensure that everyone stay on track.

If you have an employee though who is not improving then it may be time to look at a formal Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). A PIP should clearly outline your expectations, detail achievable goals and a reasonable timeframe for the employee to turn their performance around. Your mindset when implementing a PIP should always be to set your employee up to succeed. You want to be working with your employee to assist them in correcting their poor performance and turning a low performing employee into a high performing employee. • Underperformance should be dealt with promptly. • The longer poor performance is allowed to continue, the more difficult a satisfactory resolution becomes as well as having a negative impact on well performing employees. No one likes to feel that they are carrying the burden of an underperforming employee. • Be consistent. Consistently deal with transgression.

Don’t let them slide. • Set your employee up to succeed.

HR Maximised can assist with developing a performance management meeting plan to help turn a poor performing employee into a high performing employee.

------------------------------------------------------------------------If you would like assistance, please reach out to Vanessa from HR Maximised on 0418 190 106 or vanessa@hrmaximised.com.au