For an organisation to be successful its employees need to perform well, and both line managers and HR teams can play a vital role in helping employees to do so.
1. Identify What Good Performance Looks Like
Employees need to understand what’s expected of them in order to perform to their best ability. Communicating to all employees at the start of their employment the standards expected of them and regularly monitoring these standards such as through a robust induction, regular one-to-one meetings, and annual appraisals can assist in this process.
2. Don’t Ignore the Problem
If an employee is under performing then steps should be taken to address this as soon as possible, ignoring the problem will not help to resolve it, and is likely to manifest into a bigger problem in the future. Failure to address the problem sends a message to all employees that poor performance is acceptable and may lead to low morale amongst the whole team.
3. Try To Address the Problem Informally
The capability process is linked to capability (can’t do) rather than conduct (won’t do), and attempts should be made to address performance issues informally in the first instance. The line manager should carefully explain to the employee where they are under performing and what the employee needs to do to improve, prior to more formal action being taken. This also gives the employee the opportunity to explain what might be causing the poor performance, such as events in their personal life, along with the type of support they might require, such as training, or mentoring. Any targets set for employees should be realistic, measurable and achievable.
4. Escalate To a Formal Process
If the informal approach is not successful as improvements have not been sufficient enough nor sustained, the formal capability process can be invoked.
Although formal capability processes can vary between organisations, as a minimum there should be an investigation into the employee’s poor performance, such as reviewing records of one-to-one meetings and annual appraisals. It’s therefore important to document what has been said/done at both the informal and formal stages of the process.
As before the employee should be told where they are under performing and what the employee needs to do to improve, along with being set realistic targets, being told what happens next in the process and when the process will come to an end. It’s important they’re made aware that failure to meet the required standards may lead to their dismissal.
5. Conclude the Formal Process
If when concluding the capability process the employee’s performance has improved, then they need to be made aware of what happens next should their performance drop again in the future.
If however, the employee fails to improve despite the capability process being followed, the employer may consider relocating them to a new role or dismissing them.
Please note this blog relates to capability for incompetence rather than medical capability where a separate procedure should be followed.
📢If you need advice, contact one of our team on 01935411191 or email enquiries@rbhr.co.uk for a free initial consultation phone call. 📢