Employees are the lifeblood of your business. Be sure to evaluate them on a regular basis so they have clear job descriptions and know how to be successful. Discipline becomes much easier.
So, what do you do with an employee who isn’t doing that well? Have a process in place so both you and the employee know what to expect. A Performance Improvement Plan will help the employee see where they are falling down and how to get back up.
When you’ve observed employee behavior that you’re not happy with, write it out. It’s very important that you have detailed descriptions and that you almost do it immediately after the fact. Write up an action plan with the employee. You should not come up with this action plan on your own. List up to three steps that you want to see taken. I recommend no more than three, though. Set a deadline for each of those action items to be completed.
At the end of the deadline, have a conversation with the employee. Hopefully, you’ll be able to give them praise for following the plan. If not, then you can decide to revise the plan, or let the employee go. Either way, it will not be a surprise to them. They basically make it their decision. More often than not, you’ll be surprised at how often employees turn their performance around and actually produce really great work.
If you have questions, please contact me at tom@tomjackobs.com. You can request a consultation and we can have a phone conversation about what’s going on in your business, and how I might be able to help you succeed.
