Dealing with problematic employees

We don't have that many employees so it's not too difficult for us to deal with them individually. We mostly base our decisions on their personalities. If they start to become problematic but they seem to have the attitude of being able to correct it then we will do our best to just guide them to that point. We do give everyone an equal chance to correct themselves but for some it is a bit obvious that they don't like being there.

 

In any well run business an employee should know that he is about to get fired even before you tell him by the simple fact that all his objectives should be clear and his performance expectation should be measurable and easy to quantify, so, if he is under performing, even he should be able to realize pretty quickly that he is falling behind and some form of revaluation of his position is coming. Of course, this is a well run business, where objectives are clear, everybody has a mission and there is a process in place that works both for the people and in spite of people. If your process is good enough, it should work independently of the attitude of people.

That being said, some people are simply not motivated or never clicked with what your organization stands for, like a broken marriage, it is better for everybody to split in amicable terms sometimes.

 

Whether you can do anything with a problem employee depends a lot on their attitude. There are some people who just don't click who you can work with, and there are people who don't want to click who you can't. If someone is enjoying causing trouble then, finding out why and taking away whatever benefit they are getting from it is about the only way it will work. Let them know there is a problem upfront, don't suffer for six months and spring it on them at a review. Then try and work with them to fix it.

With someone who is always late, adjusting start time might work, or possibly giving flexible hours so their late start also becomes their late finish and their problem. If it is a skills problem then arranging mentoring or training can help. In cases of team fit or personality clash it can be a lot harder but assuming people can act like adults, and that can be a big assumption, discussing the situation can help. In some cases the team leader my need to put their foot down.

But none of it will work if the employee does not want to change. If they don't care if they lose their job or let people down, then their note going to change, and that's when everything needs to be documented before letting them go.

In one case I can remember with a non-performing coder, I spoke to him privately and he didn't improve, we arranged a performance plan and met weekly and he didn't improve, I spoke to the team with him and he was assigned a mentor and he never improved. HR spoke to him, and he said he was just bored and would rather play computer games because there were other people (a pejorative was used) to do the work, and that now he'd been hired we were stuck with him. An incorrect assumption. It only took so long because we had to make sure everything was watertight on procedure.

 

Here in the USA all an employee has to do is go to a crooked doctor and get classified and bipolar the a big lawsuit can happen if they get fired. Outsourcing can be used as a safety net for that atleast until you get to know the employee before you hire them.