Staff underperformance has a wide-spread knock-on effect within any organisation; whether it may be decreasing team morale to losing sales and ultimately money. As we saw in the previous guide, the origins of underperformance vary according to the kind of worker you have. Whilst last time, we looked at factors largely within the early parts of a worker’s career in the company, today we look at how even the most seasoned employee can lose motivation and underperform.
No sticks
If you think of rewarding performance as ‘the carrot’, having red lines for underperformance as a means of discipline signifies ‘the stick’; and you can’t have one without the other. If there are no penalties for poor performance, some employees may feel they can “get away with” turning in work late or poorly done. Without the fear of sanctions or scorn, it can be easy to give minimal effort towards a company.
Punishments must be thought through constructively as to not be counter-productive if they humiliate or intimidate a worker out of the company. A well-thought-through and reviewed step-by-step series of consequences for poor performance which are made clear to the team can address this element of underperformance.
Burnout
A word that strikes fear into any HR manager, burnout can literally be the death of an employee’s performance at a company. According to Mayo Clinic, burnout is ‘a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity’. Symptoms include feeling a lack of energy to be consistently productive, becoming cynical or critical at work and lacking satisfaction from achievements. Even the employee that one day seems the most motivated can end up burnt out if they over-work and find minimal results on a project.
While being burned out should not be a free pass for doing sub-par work, it is a red flag for a manager to understand why an employee has been led to this state and to redress their grievances to get them back on track. Were they overwhelmed with work? Were their talents under-utilised? Were they over-empowered for a project? It should be noted that underperformance can also be a passive-aggressive way for an employee to try and highlight what they see as wrong, so look out for any harbouring of anger or resentment.
Mental health
A rather obvious and common reason for underperformance. Let’s be honest, many can testify how difficult it is to not let personal issues or problems at home get in the way of our work – it’s human nature. Bringing negative feelings and attitudes to the work environment can not only negatively impact the employee’s performance but also have a knock-on impact on the rest of the team – deteriorating the overall performance. The best solution is to have an open-door policy for all to discuss what is going on and ensure that utilities such as workplace counselling services, personal days of leave or sick leaves can be provided.
Besides personal issues, work-related stress is another mental health factor contributing to underperformance. This is an all-consuming illness developing when an employee is unable to cope with the demands being placed on them. Common causes are insufficient job design, organisation or management. This not only leads towards underperformance, but also other threats towards your company such as high levels of sickness absence and staff turnover.
Work-related stress will also impact fellow workers as their own stress levels can rise from having to cover for those unable to perform their jobs properly. Possible preventative measures for this are having transparent and open communications so staff feel able to talk about concerns before they get too much and to ensure the requirements of the role are clearly understood.
The workplace environment
Ensuring a cohesive, co-operative and accountable workplace is key for performance in any company. When standards slip or conflict is left un-tackled is where the platform for performance is lost. A positive work environment engages and motivates staff to perform to the best of their ability. Working relationships, organisational culture, and personal development are all elements many employees will depend on experiencing through the work environment, and it’s the responsibility of managers and HR to ensure this is provided.
Disengaged management is one factor that can promote an unhealthy work environment which would highly impact overall staff performance as well as allowing for toxic environments to emerge within teams without addressing them in time. Employee’s feeling they aren’t being heard, that their work is unappreciated and that they are not valued or respected as an individual will also lead to an unhealthy workplace environment. This means it is pivotal for managers to connect with their employees on a personal level, recognising their unique contributions and inspiring high performance.
Having put forward some of the most significant factors behind underperformance, it is relevant to understand how to then tackle underperformance upon identification. Join us shortly as we look at ways in which to counter underperformance as well as analysing ways in which other companies have done so. In the meantime, check our partners portal to see how your company can benefit from a motivated, youthful, global force of interns.
