Table for Dealing with Failure or Poor Performance

FAILURE FACTORS	REMEDIAL ACTION
Demotivation: This staff member has no motivation to achieve in her/his work.	Tackle her/him immediately and find out the reasons and initiate planned improvement
Lack of Skills: This worker cannot cope with technical demands of the job.	Identify lacking skills, arrange training ASAP and assign someone with skills to the task
Procrastinating: This employee always finds reasons for not getting on with work.	Break down the job into manageable parts, do not let the worker stretch the time required, provide hands-on-help to get the job done
Absenteeism: This worker doesn’t come to work gives reasons and dodges responsibility.	Point out the effects absenteeism, ensure employee feels as an important team-member, consider flexible work schemme
Habitual lateness: This worker is always late and always has an excuse syndrome of (learned –helplessness).	Let the worker know you are not interested in excuses but solutions, counsel the worker and apply peer pressure from team members.
Personal Problems: This worker allows personal problems affect her/his work.	Concentrate on workers’ performance not problems, consider giving sick leave or reassigning duties, advise employee to seek professional help.

These remedies should always be sought before sacking an employee because recruitment and selection, interviewing, appointing, induction and training of new staff are more costly for an organisation than in-house remedial action.

Tips for the manager

1 Think before giving up a business project or an employee because giving up is irreversible.

2 On the other hand, you should consider cutting your losses rather carrying on in vague hope.

3 There is usually a good reason why a business project or employee is not performing well.

Remunerating (Paying Employees) Effectively

The simplest notion of remuneration is to pay employees agreed sums of money at the end of a week, month or fixes period. Another form of payment is called “Payment by Results” (PBR) or piece work where an employee gets a fixed sum for each unit of work competed. In theory, PBR gives the employee the best incentive to maximise output and earnings based on the principle of “more pay for more production”. A second principle is to “constantly revise any kind of pay system to ensure that you are not overpaying or underpaying your staff”.

Tips for managers

1 Always involve your employees in pay schemme revisions.

2 Always make it clear to your staff that extra pay is for special achievement.

3 If you have a bonus system, let team members decide how bonus payment is divided.

4 Regard bonus payments as the employees’ share in the company’s success.

5 Non-cash incentives, fringe benefits have powerful influence on attitudes to improve results.

5 Use share schemes to reward employees for contributing to the company success.

6 Surprise employees with gifts-trays that they do not expect.

7 Remember that giving employees incentives of any kind sends a very positive signal.

8 Make welfare provisions for employees are as generous as possible

9 Abolish status symbols that act in divisive messages of “them and us” manner.

To assess effective Remuneration of Employees ask Yourself the Following Questions;

1. Have I ensured that rewards I have given are what employees really want?

2. Am I acting to align the staff’s interests with the goals and needs of the organisation?

3. Do I always reward achievement and ability in preference to seniority?

4. Have I examined all the possible ways of rewarding my staff?

Creating Partnerships with your Workers

When workers feel that their own success and that of the company are linked, they will be motivated to give their personal best for the good of the company. You should value the opinions of staff as company partners and treat them with the care you give to customers.

Therefore you should:

1. Enable your staff to understand the business as a whole entity.

2. Involve your staff in decision making as much as possible.

3. Encourage your staff to find colleagues to closely work with.

4. Don’t keep secrets that can safely be shared among staff.

5. Don’t leave staff in doubt about future organisational plans

6. Don’t treat employees as cogs in a machine.

Individually Assess your Management Abilities. 72

Effective Leadership

The key to truly effective leadership lies in mastering a wide range of skills from implementing business strategies, administering the process and inspiring employees to achieve excellence.

Excellent leaders are born as well made, but to be the best you should also learn the essential skills of leadership through formal training courses as well as on-the job-experience. The aim of leadership is to help others to achieve their personal best. This involves setting high but realistic performance goals for yourself, your staff and finding ways to improve operations and procedures to strive for Total Quality Management in all areas of your organisation.