Managing Employee Performance

One of the reasons companies have processes and human resources departments is because there are employment laws. This resource starts with an employee dilemma. You will be introduced to various performance issues and employee rights as you read.

Handling Performance

Key Takeaways

  • Performance issues in the workplace are common. Examples of performance issues might include constant tardiness, too much time at work handling personal issues, mishandling of proprietary information, family issues, drug and alcohol problems, nonperformance, theft, or conflicts in the workplace.
  • Employees choose to leave organizations for internal and external reasons. Some of these may include a mismatch of career goals, conflict, too high expectations, time-management issues, and mismatch of job and skills.
  • HR professionals should develop a set of policies that deal with performance issues in the workplace. The advantage of having such a policy is that it can eliminate wrongful termination legal action.
  • A mandated issue is usually one that deals with safety or legal issues that go beyond the workplace. An infringement of this type of issue requires immediate attention.
  • A single incident may include a misstep of the employee, and he or she should immediately be spoken with to ensure it doesn't happen again.
  • A behavior pattern occurs when an employee consistently exhibits a performance issue. This type of issue should be discussed with the employee and plans taken, such as more training, to ensure it does not continue. A persistent pattern occurs when an employee consistently exhibits a performance issue and does not improve, despite HR's talking with him or her.
  • At some point during the persistent pattern, disciplinary action will likely need to be taken. It is important to develop consistent procedures on how to record and handle disciplinary issues. Most employers use a progressive discipline process to accomplish this goal.
  • Employee separation occurs in one of three ways. First, the employee resigns from the organization. Second, the employee is terminated for performance issues, and third, an employee absconds. Absconds means the employee abandons his or her job without submitting a formal resignation.
  • In some cases, a severance package may be offered to the employee upon his or her departure from the organization.
  • Rightsizing is a term used when an organization must cut costs through layoffs of employees. Development of criteria for layoffs, communication, and severance package discussion are all parts of this process.