Clear Direction

21st February 2017

What do you do when you have an employee who you believe is potentially a real asset to the business, but who is clearly under performing, and even showing signs of apathy or laziness? Well, you can take them through the disciplinary procedures, and ultimately sack them, or you can persevere, and try to get them to realise their potential.

The second of these two options is clearly the better one, but for many the time and effort it can require to change their ways can be too much, and so in the end they become another victim of taking the easiest route.

I was recently working with one of my clients who has just this issue. They have a young employee just below management level, and whilst he clearly has many of the ideal aspects they need, he is simply lazy, and does things to the barest minimum, just to get by. Part of the problem lies with the line manager who has not made it clear where his responsibilities lie, and also that the line manager is too quick to take things off the young persons hands (because it is easier and quicker to do so). Unfortunately this gives out all the wrong signals, and it just encourages laziness, and re-inforces that that type of behaviour is acceptable.

To be fair to the line manager, he is trying very hard to improve this person’s performance levels, but so far has met with stubborn resistance.

So we have decided to change things, both in terms of where people sit physically (so it is harder to pass work over to the line manager) and also to work out a bonus system which should encourage him to take on more responsibility. If he hits his targets, it will significantly improve his monthly income, and it will therefore be beneficial to him, his line manager and to the business as a whole.

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