Tackling problems head-on

We often find that small business owners are very unsure about how to handle concerns with employee performance, so much so that they tip toe around the issue rather than tackle it head-on.

I was speaking recently with an owner that had a casual employee that worked fluctuating hours and submitted a timesheet for payroll. The employer had noticed that the hours on the timesheet had been increasing over time and now were around 25% greater than orginally planned. The employee's workload hadn't increased so in addition to higher wage costs, the business was suffering from a reduced workplace productivity rate. 

To address the problem, the owners had been keen to alleviate the employee's workload by taking on some of the tasks themselves. On the surface this might appear to be a good option, especially as it's a zero conflict approach - instead of confronting the employee to talk about nasty things like poor performance you can talk about how to ease the load - but what's the real cost of not tackling the issue head-on? 

1. The employee will not know that their performance is not meeting your expectations

2. The owner falls into the trap of working in the business, rather than on the business (which defeats the purpose of having employees in the first place)

3. The employee's productivity rate may become even worse if they continue to work the same long hours with a reduced workload

4. Everyone else who completes their work in the expected hours sees their workmate getting a helping hand, so they might all increase their hours to get the same reward!

We always recommend that employers speak openly with their employees about general progress and any concerns and ideas either may have.

In this case some points for discussion might be:

• how is work planned and reviewed?
• what slows people down?
• how are hours determined / approved?
• how can we ensure that the allocated work gets completed in the allocated hours?

The key is to have a two-way discussion ... educate your employees about productivity and what in means in your business, and figure out together what it means for them in their job. Problem-solving conversations like this can be really useful to identify improvements to operational systems and processes which may be all that is needed to address performance shortfalls.

But, if pain persists ... see your Doctor.

Maybe that's our new tagline? Blue Dot ... the Workplace Doctors!