Management Friday: When an Employee Needs Improvement

Every Friday I write about a topic of particular interest to working parents who manage people.

One of the hardest things a manager has to do is give constructive criticism to an employee who isn’t meeting your needs.  As a working parent, however, you absolutely must have dependable and strong staff, so it’s critical that you are clear and honest about how they can better support your work.  Here are some tips for addressing your employee’s weaknesses and helping them to be the best support staff possible:

1. Nothing is too petty.  So often I hear from managers that they are going to let some small offense go by because they want to “pick their battles.”  I would suggest that you shouldn’t have to pick your battles with a good employee — good workers don’t get huffy over relatively small requests or changes.  However, when you don’t tell your employee that something is wrong the problem is likely to get bigger, making the conversation more difficult.  

2. Discuss the issue in the spirit of professional development.  Some managers like to use the hamburger method, sandwiching a critique in between two compliments.  I’m not a big fan of that kind of conversation — it comes off disingenuous to me — but I do think constructive criticism should be offered as a way for the employee to genuinely improve performance, not just in their current job, but as they grow in the field.  For example, if the employee is having trouble writing a business letter, it would be worth pointing out that this is a skill they will need as they move onward and upward.  Michele Martin at The Bamboo Project has some great thoughts on professional development and helping employees grow here.

3. Be specific about the problem and the solution.  Don’t use generalities like “I don’t like your attitude,” or “Your writing skills are poor,” but rather speak about a particular instance.  Explain exactly how you want the project done in the future, even going into details that you think the employee already knows.  It never hurts to be very clear.  The Complete Lawyer offers some good tips on giving directions to support staff here.

4. Offer your support in helping to fix the problem.  By asking the employee how you can help, you will learn more about what is going on and whether s/he is in over their head or just lazy.  If you can, offer professional development seminars or training.  Not only will the employee perceive this as a bonus, it also helps you to delegate some of the training work.

5. Don’t wait.  Since giving criticism is unpleasant for most managers, they often put it off until either the problem has gotten much worse or been forgotten.  Neither one serves your objective to get the employee back on track.  Have the conversation as soon as possible after the problem arises.

6. Document conversations back to the employee.  Emailing the employee a brief summary of what you discussed and next steps makes it clear that you are serious.  Sending a write-up of the conversation to human resources is only necessary if you think the problems are serious enough to consider termination.  Otherwise, keep a copy in your files “just in case,” but document in an email or letter directly to the employee.  ALWAYS, ALWAYS talk in person first, then send the email as a follow-up.

More tips on giving an employee constructive criticism:

• A great article on the three Cs of dealing with under-performers from John Baldoni’s Harvard Business blog
• Ben Yoskovitz at The Instigator gives good tips on responding to your employee during the conversation.
• 5 Steps to reduce turnover, improve morale and build trust from Michael Perry.
• The Performance Talent & Management blog talks about which is worse,  lack of skills of incompetence, here.
• Amy Smith offers this article about managing employee discipline meetings at Suite 101 here.