Dealing with Poor Performers

When it comes to employee performance management we discuss the positives of the process more often than not. Over the past week or so, I’ve read a few different posts and articles that provide some great insights on how poor performers impact organizations and how to deal with them.

Kris Dunn over at the HR Capitalist did a post last week on the MDE – that’s the Most Dangerous Employee. As an HR professional, you know you have these employees, those that Kris defines as “disengaged, disenchanted, vocal and performing at an acceptable level.” In his post he shares a presentation from Judy McLeish of The Employee Factor who discusses the impact MDEs and bad apples have on organizations. I’d recommend you take a look through her slides as the information makes a clear case as to why every organization should deal with these employees in a proactive way.

On a related note, I also notice this article Making Performance Reviews Less Stressful for Everyone from Harvard Business Publishing that is well worth a read. It provides some good ideas about handling the “areas for improvement” section of the review.

I think that too often, poor performers, MDEs or bad apples aren’t dealt with proactively because organizations make performance appraisals a once-a-year deal. Talking about something once a year doesn’t impact any change on a day-to-day basis. Employees need to have clearly defined expectations and be accountable for their actions. Issues should be dealt with in a timely manner.

If you want further resources on performance maintenance, I’d recommend you check out this whitepaper by Dr. Christopher Lee.