Nothing can be more frustrating than trying to manage the employee who performs poorly. Try this approach:
Focus on the conduct, rather than the person. For example, if an employee is consistently late, say "It's 9:20 a.m., which means client calls since 8:00 a.m. have gone unanswered," rather than, "You're late again, so you obviously don't care about our customers." Hurling a "you" at someone triggers an emotional flight or fight response that only heightens the drama.
Review your hiring and training system. Many businesses do such a poor job of hiring that they literally hire people to fail, leading to poor performance and high turnover. Management should not be responsible for the success of employees - but responsible to them for allowing their success.
Responsible management empowers workers to do what they can do and enjoy doing well, which makes them work more effectively. This isn't rocket science - it's common sense.
Make sure that the employee has the skills needed to improve their conduct. If they seem willing to perform, but their skill set has lapsed, the conversation should go something like this:
"I know you're a good person. As your job responsibilities have grown and changed over the years, you've tried to perform, but, unfortunately not to our expectations. I'm sure you share this frustration. Would you like us to train you to improve your performance so that we can both feel good about it? If you don't think that will work, what would you propose? Because we're stumped trying to come up with a better idea."
Find out why a skilled employee isn't doing the job. Assuming that they still have their skill set, what's going on? If they have a disability, they might be protected under the ADA, FMLA, or state law. In this case, the question becomes whether you can accommodate the disability so they can keep performing. Remember, despite the legal obligations of the employer, a worker must still be able to perform their essential job functions with or without an accommodation.
If their poor performance has nothing to do with a disability, they might simply be worn out, having a problem in their personal life, or looking for another job. If that's the case, the conversation might go something like this:
"You have a great skill set. But, as you've probably sensed, you haven't had the drive to perform as well as in the past. We've had to discipline you about this. We care about you, but we also need to have the job done. What can we do to turn this around? Please take a look at this Employee Correction Form (see the Form of the Month) and fill it out so we can have your written input. If your suggestions make sense, we'll try one last time. If what you suggest doesn't feel right, then we'll have to end our relationship. Does anything make more sense than that?"
If the employee adopts a victim mentality and blames other people for their circumstances, suspend them for two or three days so they can go home and re-think matters. There's no rush; chances are that this has been going on for some time. Take the time to make sure that you "get it right," that your systems aren't at fault, and that there are no disability or discrimination issues involved. Give the employee every opportunity to take responsibility for their performance.
If the situation still doesn't change, it's time to "liberate" the employee. In fact, a continued relationship will harm both parties. There's a simple test of when it's time to "liberate" someone: If they quit, would you be relieved or upset?
