Employees can be the boon or bane of a company’s existence depending on how they carry out their activities in the workplace. Workplace underperformance can reduce your company’s overall success and it is pertinent that leaders acknowledge that our employees are struggling and address whatever problem they are facing. Let’s go through the causes of underperformance and ways to deal with it.
There are several reasons responsible for an employee’s performance and with the after effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees are easily stressed out and go through a high level of anxiety. Some of these reasons include;
Inadequate development opportunities: The main reason why people get a job is to make money, however, employees may get stagnant if there are no opportunities to improve their performance and skills. They may feel undermotivated if they realize that there is no path for them to progress in that particular area and that they are stuck in one position for a long period.
Insufficient Communication: If there is a lack of information between the employees and the respective authorities, they may feel stressed and unclear about what is expected of them. Employers must update employees on important issues related to their job performance or workplace roles.
Workplace stress: When employees are anxious about a new project or have regular burnouts due to their workload, they are unable to perform duties well due to physical and mental stress which affects their overall productivity.
Lack of variety in tasks: If employees are stuck performing the same routine every day in the workplace, it would result in them losing interest in their job thereby submitting half baked results.
Personal issues: Challenges outside of the workplace can also affect an employee’s performance and affect their ability to focus and come up with creative ideas.
Dealing with underperformance;
Underperformance is a common issue and does not only happen because an employee chooses to be lazy. There are several ways to deal with underperformance all depending on the particular scenario, therefore it is important to know how to handle each peculiar situation without coming off as an enemy. Here are some steps in which you can implement while dealing with such situations;
1.Identify the problem in question, and note the ways their output has suffered including any strange behavior they might be displaying.
2. Approach the employee in a nice manner and do not assume that you know everything about the situation. Set a private meeting and point out the ways in which their underperformance is affecting their team or company in general without taking an accusatory stance. You can ask certain questions about their workload, what motivates and frustrates them about their job.
3. If an employee has certain expectations about their job that have not been realized, you can offer to them or do for them what they are hoping to attain, if it goes well with your company’s culture.
4. Once the problem has been identified, it is important to develop a step by step plan to fix the problem and encourage the employee to set goals while noting their recommendations.
5. Schedule weekly or monthly meetings to monitor their progress and make sure to recognize baby steps. Praise them for each effort taken and show how the impact it has on their team or the company.
Building better and strong relationship with your employees is the starting point to achieving productivity in the workplace.