Poor Performing Employees

5 things you can do now to manage
poor performance in your workplace fairly and lawfully

Poor-performing employees can cost your business dearly in lost productivity, time and wages. But they don’t have to.

Take these 5 steps to manage poor performing employees effectively:

1. Set specific performance standards and communicate them to your employees. If you don’t, you could find yourself hit with an unfair dismissal claim…
2. Conduct regular performance evaluations and provide the employee with any training they need to perform their role properly. That way, if you dismiss an employee for poor performance down the track, you will have evidence of your attempt to help them do their job properly ‚ ¨ which could avert an unfair dismissal claim…
3. If an employee is not meeting performance standards, explain this to them and give them an opportunity to respond. Together, you should determine how the employee can fix the situation and decide a specific period in which they should show improvement. You will need to give the employee a fair opportunity to meet the required performance standard ‚ ¨ if you don’t, you could be held liable for unfair dismissal…
4. After this, if your employee’s work performance does not improve sufficiently, you can issue them with a written warning. If they still fail to improve after this, issue them with a final warning. But remember, you need to be able to prove that you gave them a chance to improve…
5. After you have followed all the above steps and no improvement has been shown, inform the employee that you intend to dismiss them. Explain why. Give them an opportunity to state any reason they believe dismissal should not occur, and take it into account before finalising your decision. This will minimise your chance of being exposed to an unfair dismissal claim…

Need help with the process Fresh HR Insights Pty Ltd is helping small to medium businesses all over the Gold Coast and surrounding areas with their HR Matters.