3 Things To Try If You Have Underperforming Staff

When you hire someone to work for your company, you expect them to get the work done that they’ve been hired to do. But sometimes, staff members may be underperforming. And while this can throw a wrench in the way that your business is able to function, it’s often more beneficial to you to try to fix the problem than just trying to hire a brand new person.

So if you have someone on your staff that isn’t meeting expectations with their performance, here are three things that you can try when you have underperforming staff members. 

Make Sure Job Expectations Are Clear

One of the first things that you should do when you’re having a problem with a staff member is to ensure that their job expectations are clear to them. While you might feel like you know exactly what they should be doing and what their responsibilities are, if those things haven’t been directly expressed to them, they can’t reasonably be held responsible for not meeting those expectations.

To help you determine if this is the case, meet with the staff member and go over what your expectations are for their position and their performance. Be sure you reiterate on the areas where you feel like they’ve been lacking so that there’s no question about whether or not they understand what’s expected of them. 

Discuss Possible Solutions With Them

Once you know that they now have a firm grasp on what’s expected on them in their job, you can discuss with them how you feel that they’ve been falling short of these expectations as of late. Then, you can discuss what some possible solutions to the problem might be. 

While you might have some ideas of your own, like using network monitoring software to better keep track of things from your end, putting some of the responsibility on them to find a solution can also be helpful. Only they know why their performance might be taking a hit recently, so they can best express to you what they might need to be different in order to excel at work. 

Hold Everyone To The Same Standards

Now that you’ve discussed everything with your staff member and you’re on the same page about what the expectations are and what can be done to ensure that they’re meeting this standard, you then have to make sure that you’re holding them to the same standards as everyone else. If there’s no improvement in their performance over a few weeks and you don’t think they’re taking you seriously about working hard at their job and giving you the results that you need, finding a replacement might be necessary. 

If you have a staff member that’s underperforming at your company, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you address this issue with them.