It’s time to face the music. There’s a performance or conduct issue on your team.
Burying your head in the sand is not an option.
So, what’s the best way to deal with it?
Considering many companies are preparing to complete performance reviews in June and July, this topic is probably top of mind for many business owners and executives.
Typically, people performance problems are identified in four ways:
By doing 360 reviews, a person not only receives feedback from the boss, but also from peers, direct reports and potentially even a line manager. Then the person reviews all the feedback and sees the same issue is impacting the whole team.
Approximately 70% of the time, business owners do nothing about the issues, and then they must deal with the consequences.
Other times, they wait for the issue to become a really big problem, and then when it explodes, there could potentially be legal ramifications.
Generally, what they don’t do is go through a process, so that’s what BespokeHR sets up.
I walk business owners and executives through the following steps:
By creating a structure for those conversations you will significantly reduce any hassles that happen at the end. Hassles can include legal ramifications, cost, time and frustration.
Generally, facing the issue head on starts the process. But it’s more than that.
Getting past the “this person’s not achieving” mindset to thinking about why they aren’t achieving, what specific things they’re not doing and what they would need to do to in order to achieve is the goal. Being able to articulate this is the key difference between success or non-success.
Every business is different terms of the structure and the formality they want to have around managing performance and development in the workplace.
Some do it very formally on a quarterly basis, and some do it annually.
It is important to match this subject to the managers’ capability, time, and the type of organisation yours is.
Generally, you want to have ongoing discussions about people’s performance. So if you see performance dropping, then the talk about this should happen as soon as possible.
Don’t wait for a once-a-year review to tell an employee that he or she isn’t doing such-and-such core components of the job properly.
Instead, having set—what I call—success factors of the position in place, allows you to acknowledge if a person drops below those. Then you need to actually stop when it happens, and say, “Is everything OK? I noticed that you’ve dropped in sales or you haven’t been able to this [insert task]. Is there anything we can do to support you?”
If you can point to the performance standard in this regard is a, b or c, then you can ask if there’s a reason the person isn’t getting there. Plus, you’re asking how you can help rather than just saying performance isn’t where it should be.
Approaching the process in a documented and deliberate way is important should anything happen later.
BespokeHR offers scripts, emails, letters and all of the accompanying processes for those conversations. We help people walk through that process because it can be awkward.
I certainly acknowledge how hard it is to initiate that conversation when you’re in an open environment and the person sits next to you.
That’s where BespokeHR can reduce that HR anxiety and help change the focus to be around development and making the team the best it can be.
First off, I understand it can be a struggle because we have fair work laws here in Australia. You can do everything right and still get in trouble.
But that said, having BespokeHR is like wearing a seatbelt when you’re driving a car. It’s not going to stop you from crashing (or from employees taking legal action), but it’s going to hurt a whole lot less. Same goes for conduct issues.
The key is following the process. These awkward conversations need to be structured correctly and documents filled out in order to make sure you are compliant.
BespokeHR offers a number of programs as well as forms and templates to assist through the process. The most important thing is to make sure you follow the steps.
And while there’s no way to list everything in a short blog post, a quick summary would be as follows:
Note: Each step has a list of potential notes and/or tips in terms of how to execute them properly that BespokeHR could deliver.
With the end of the financial year approaching, traditional performance reviews start coming up in conversations. Rather than do the same old reviews, why not look into carrying out a 360 degree review either on the full team or on your management team to create additional input into areas to celebrate and potential development areas to focus on?
What’s involved? BespokeHR will help you:
I also can assist with debriefing, coaching and/or providing development suggestions.
Want to find out more? Send me an email with your name and number, your organisation, size of company and number of people you want reviewed. And I’ll be in touch!
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