
Wolt customer story
As Wolt continues to experience hypergrowth it becomes increasingly important to make sure they have the right processes to support their people. Read on to learn more.
Handling employee underperformance can often seem uncomfortable, but delaying this step only prolongs the inevitable. In order to be an effective manager, one must take appropriate actions to encourage change if an employee repeatedly displays poor performance.
But, how do you know that you have a poorly performing team member?
This may seem like an arbitrary, obvious question, but, it is one that needs exploring. Where are you getting your information from? Colleagues, office gossip, gut feeling or irrefutable data?
This is important, as it has been documented that employees within companies that utilize 360-degree feedback for performance evaluation utilized extensive manipulation of feedback ratings. A few companies that suffered include GE (Welch 2001), IBM (Linman 2011), and Amazon (Kantor and Streitfeld 2015). Therefore, relying on opinions from colleagues is not the best course of action.
Instead, when faced with the question of quality of performance it is better to ask yourself the following questions:
If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions then, chances are you have a poor performer on your hands. So, what are the next steps to be taken? How do you as a manager deal with the poor performer and inspire them to change their ways; and if this cannot be done, how do you let them go?
While the above questions may serve as a ‘warning system’, you should rely on data and facts. This way you ensure that emotions, existing pre-conceptions, and gut feeling plays no part when rooting out and exposing poor performers. In this sense, it’s nothing personal, it’s just business.
In order to have the data on which to base your performance decisions, you should carry out performance reviews of your whole team. This will provide you with the necessary information to assess the individual contribution of each team member. Carrying out effective performance reviews that yield the correct information is hugely important and more challenging than you might think. The Society for Human Resource Management found that over 90% of managers consider performance reviews an ineffective means of gathering actionable information.
Once you have deemed your employee’s performance sub-par, it is important to ask yourself the reasons for this. It may very well be the case that a small adjustment in work focus or direction is all that the employee needs to get back on track. Once the data has revealed poor performance, here are the questions to ask yourself, and the steps you should take to resolve the issues:
At this point, you should have a second review period. Use this review to ensure that you correctly diagnosed the reason for poor performance during the first review.
Should results start to improve, this review period can be used to reinforce the employee’s renewed good performance by acknowledging their efforts and setting new goals. Set up additional meetings with the employee so that you can continue to support and monitor their progress.
However, if you diagnosed the problem correctly, spoke with the employee, but their performance has still not improved, then you are left with no option but to initiate termination proceedings.
Take time to talk with your employee and isolate the issue. With a bit of cooperation and effort from both sides, you’ll be able to resolve the problem. With communication, review, and follow-up, a poor performer can transform into a valuable and productive member of your team. Well done!
If you’d like to learn more about how to manifest a happier, more effective work environment and boost your company's culture, download our whitepaper below.
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