palletcentral

42 PalletCentral • March-April 2021 palletcentral.com Business Bests By Liz Uram Employees Not Measuring Up? Do's and don'ts of improving performance. H ave you ever dreaded having a conversation with an employee who wasn't meeting performance expectations? Maybe you avoided it, hoping it would improve on its own? If so, you are not alone. Most managers would agree that one of their least favorite tasks is talking to an employee about poor performance. When performance conversations are ignored, success is left up to interpretation. This can only result in conflict because everyone has different perceptions. When an employee's failures can no longer be avoided, too many managers say in frustration, "They should have known!" And the good-intentioned employee who thinks they are knocking it out of the park is shocked when they finally find out they are barely getting by. Addressing performance issues can be unpleasant and stressful. To avoid this discomfort, some managers ignore the issue and hope the situation improves on its own. Avoiding difficult discussions leads down dead-end roads: 1) High stress levels. There are enough things in life to stress out about and discussing performance doesn't need to be one of them. Stress is serious business. It accounts for 67 percent of all illness according to one study. 2) Poor morale. One of the fastest ways to demotivate a team is to ignore poor performers. The rest of the team can see what's going on and they are looking to the manager to address it. When the manager doesn't deal with it, it can result in negative attitudes. Bad attitudes are contagious and soon there are bigger issues to deal with than one person's performance. 3) Low-performing teams. People will perform to the standard that's allowed. A manager who doesn't hold people accountable sends the message that it's okay to deliver less than what's acceptable. Don't Do This Luckily, there is a better way but first let's look at some things that don't work. At some point, every manager is tempted to take the softer, easier way. Here are some methods that have been tried: Generic Email Blasts: Avoid the temptation to send a generic email to the whole team to address an individual performance issue. The person who caused the problem doesn't know you are talking to them because they aren't intentionally doing anything wrong. Or, they know the manager is talking about them but they aren't going to change because they know they won't be held accountable. It's a no-win situation. Posting Signs: 'Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?' - Five Man Electrical Band The answer to the question "Can't you read the sign?" is "No." Check out the common areas in your workplace like the copier and break rooms. You might find a sign similar to "Clean up after yourself, your mother doesn't work here." Or, "Put all items back where you found them." Despite the signs the problems persist. Signs generally don't work because no one reads them. No matter how large or bold the font, or how many exclamation points are used. Employee Handbook Updates: Another common method some managers try is asking HR to update the employee handbook. This method is probably the least effective of the three. The reality is that most employees don't read the handbook – sorry H.R.! In fact, one survey revealed that 61 percent of millennials did not read any or all of the employee handbook. The Do's that Work While the prior stated methods don't work, let's look at a simple 3-step solution that does. iStockphoto.com/Rawf8

• Cover