Managing Performance - Steps To Take When An Employee Is Underperforming

There is no legal definition of job performance, but simply, it is the assessment of how an employee performs their duties at work.

Essentially, an employer needs to identify the reason or root cause for the performance not being as it should be, as it was, or at the level that the employer wants it to be.

The situation can include an employee who is incapable of doing the job, is capable but is not contributing as required to do, is absent for frequent short periods or is signed off for a long time.

Having identified the main reason for the poor performance, either by way of having a quiet word with the employee or undertaking a formal investigation, the employer then needs to decide if something can be done to improve it. Having decided this, they then need to decide if they are prepared to expend the time (often many weeks or months), and possibly the cost, that may be required to do this.