Employee underperformance has a negative effect on your company’s overall performance. It can stall the growth of your small business and affect customer service. Underperformance can come in different forms such as late or failure to submit output, an employee submits subpar output, constant tardiness, poor work behavior, failure to communicate with colleagues and others. These are instances when it’s important to identify the causes of employee underperformance so that you can move on with a performance improvement plan.
No Incentives or Opportunities for Growth
One of the reasons an employee underperforms is because of a lack of growth opportunities and incentives. An employee may feel motivated in the beginning, but it my wane as they see there’s little to no chance to get promoted or get better incentives. To keep talent, owners must offer a competitive compensation package. Improve work performance by providing your team with performance bonuses. This can come in different forms such as a raise in base salary, cash bonuses for completed projects, flexible work hours, more vacation days, or possible remote work. Provide your team training programs and invest in certifications. This allows your team to gain the skills they need to succeed.
Repetitive Job
Some employees underperform because of the repetitiveness of their job. They no longer feel challenged and they feel their career goals have plateaued. This is when you need to set new goal posts and challenges for them. Provide them with new projects that contribute to the overall goals of your small business. Allow them some freedom to outline the different phases of the project. However, provide supervision so they don’t deviate from your company’s growth objectives.
Lack of Objectives
Too much freedom is a bad thing for employees. As the owner you need to provide them with clear objectives. Layout your plans for them and how they fit into the trajectory of the company. Delineate the short and long-term goals of your organization. This shows your leadership and encourages your employees to always be at their best at work.
Little to No Resources for Tasks
Small business owners need to provide their team with tools to succeed. You need to train them and invest in technology to make their job easier. An employee may underperform because they lack the skills to do their job well or they feel that their manager isn’t invested in their success. This affects an employee’s engagement and motivation in their work. This cascades into the entire team’s motivation. One underperforming employee has a negative effect on everyone.
Bad Work Environment
Sometimes the work environment has a negative effect on the performance of your employees. The employee may not have been an ideal culture fit that’s why they are underperforming. It may also be the supervisor managing the team. Micromanagement is one of the causes of workplace discontent. The long work hours, lack of tools needed for work, uncooperative colleagues, and lack of incentives also play a role.
Once you identify the causes of employee underperformance, you can start a performance improvement plan. Keeping talent is important to the growth of small businesses. A high turnover rate creates a negative perception about your company and may cause potential talented employees to look elsewhere for work.
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