Terminate/Performance Improvement Plan

Manager2018

Hi all
So I'm a bit new to the down side of management.
I have a great job with a great company in the IT sector.

But I have a problem with an employee on my team which I have to deal with.

Pros:

Perfect attendance.
Time keeping.
Tries very hard.
Looks better than most of the team on their C.V.

Cons:

Other people will not work with this employee, as they find it difficult to work with him.

On paper they have the ticks.... this does not correspond to their work, as they are the weakest on the team/company.

While they work very hard, the work is never completed to high enough standard or in a appropriate time.
It becomes very difficult to communicated with this person at this stage. If something is wrong in their work, they attempt to blame others. This on numerous occasions has caused a toxic atmosphere in the office.

Unfortunately too much of my time is wasted with micro management.



Its not something I want to do, but I feel it would be best for my company and team to terminate this person.
But that's not easy.

Also can't move this person within company.

Step one is Performance Improvement Plan.
Any recommendations on how to deal /advance with this.

Reezer

@Manager2018 The fact that there are prons it means theres room for improvement there. My advice is Performance Improvement Plan is the best route, please have a regular one-on-one with them highlight their strengths as well as their shortcomings, have regular updates and feedbacks. Develop and mentor them. Team built them and socially include them (I mean work wise) even in work conversations . Help them build their work confidence compliment if something is done successfully. Make sure that employee isn't isolated and alienated from other staff. If their mistakes are dramatized in front of other employees that could be degrading and leading secret low confidence in workplace especially in a small team. May I ask how big is your team?

1. PIP Performance Improvement Plan tell them your putting them on PIP clearly layout the plans make them sign it believe that would come in handy should things turn for the worst down the line


2.One-to-one sessions ..compliment their strengths as you exactly as you mentioned their prons on this post and highlight their shortcomings work together to minimize them.

3. Develop, mentor and more importantly make there aren't alienated by other employees this can boost their work confidence you might a gradual improvement.

4. If you are Good hearted let termination be last thing especially they have kids, mortgage etc... As long there's no gross misconduct and employee's attitude is positive. Some IT companies have subsections retail maybe, hands on roles downgrade them as such by doing that you give them an opportunity see they need to move at while on good terms. Its Good to be Good hearted most of the time. Best of luck.

How big is your team?

Misguided1

[QUOTE=Reezer;106383481

1. PIP Performance Improvement Plan tell them your putting them on PIP clearly layout the plans make them sign it believe that would come in handy should things turn for the worst down the line

[/QUOTE]
It is very important to set out the required standards and the likely consequences in the event that those standards are not met.

Generally 20% of your team will take up 80% of your time.

Good luck!

Manager2018

Thanks for the replies.

My team is 9 and about 25 in the company in total, including the founders. We have no HR section of the company.

To expand on the team/company background. My team develop software for internal accounting systems. So this person is a computer programer on my team, but they can't code to an acceptable standard.

I would prefer not to have to do this, as I'm not much of a disciplinarian. But I feel its in the best interest for my team and company to do this.

I will begin with PIP. I take ye have had a positive experience with this style before. What would be a fair timeline in weeks or months.

Any recommendations on templates or examples for this plan.

Is it good to use comments like 'If you don't achieve x by y, then this can lead to further actions and up to termination'
I fear this style, would trigger a toxic attitude, as this person can be very difficult.

listermint

The performance plan is the best route as pointe to above.

However the type of work or metrics will have to be measurable. You will need to quantify the work and the definition of done properly with the individual and the team as a whole.

I would start with baselining the entire team and do a matrix on the minimum skills required and measure each individual on the team against this baseline matrix.

You should then be able to identify the areas this individual lacks and use these as areas that they need to work on and grow in order to progress to next steps. These will be your minimum requirements and if they can't make it to them then it's talk of exit.

A good performance plan probably should have some achievable timescale maybe 3 months

jon1981

As a former peer of mine once said " if the employee survives the PIP, you've designed it wrong"

How much is your time worth? This person's issues are personality/behavioural problems. Rarely can you change this.

limnam

jon1981 wrote: »

As a former peer of mine once said " if the employee survives the PIP, you've designed it wrong"

Sounds like your peer was a bit of a plank.

mikemac2

jon1981 wrote: »

As a former peer of mine once said " if the employee survives the PIP, you've designed it wrong"

Sure that goes in places in terrible companies but other companies will have management, HR and the employee work together and the PIP can be passed and the employee moves on to be excellent

A PIP doesn’t always mean a death sentence!

Brian?

jon1981 wrote: »

As a former peer of mine once said " if the employee survives the PIP, you've designed it wrong"

How much is your time worth? This person's issues are personality/behavioural problems. Rarely can you change this.

That’s terrible.

The entire point of a PIP is to course correct someone who isn’t performing. There is every chance you can win with the right plan and attitude.

Brian?

OP, you’ve decided you want to terminate this person and that you won’t have a successful outcome from the PIP. IMO you need to step back from this. Setting up someone to fail on a PIP is walking your company into an unfair dismissal case.

Every metric that in the PIP needs to be measurable and achievable, you can’t railroad someone towards dismissal. So that’s your starting point. Forget that you want to terminate the employee, create an acual improvement plan.

I’d also be careful about posting stuff online about wanting to terminate an employee. This is a very public forum. The mods can trace your IP address and this employee could be a mod here without your knowing or stumble across the thread and put 2+2 together. You could hear this thread being read back to you in court.

jimmycrackcorm

Manager2018 wrote:

To expand on the team/company background. My team develop software for internal accounting systems. So this person is a computer programer on my team, but they can't code to an acceptable standard.

If you're running an agile team then encourage them to be code standard critical. The person in question will either improve to the team standard or choose to leave.

_Brian

Manager2018 wrote: »

Hi all
So I'm a bit new to the down side of management.
I have a great job with a great company in the IT sector.

But I have a problem with an employee on my team which I have to deal with.

Pros:

Perfect attendance.
Time keeping.
Tries very hard.
Looks better than most of the team on their C.V.

Cons:

Other people will not work with this employee, as they find it difficult to work with him.

On paper they have the ticks.... this does not correspond to their work, as they are the weakest on the team/company.

While they work very hard, the work is never completed to high enough standard or in a appropriate time.
It becomes very difficult to communicated with this person at this stage. If something is wrong in their work, they attempt to blame others. This on numerous occasions has caused a toxic atmosphere in the office.

Unfortunately too much of my time is wasted with micro management.



Its not something I want to do, but I feel it would be best for my company and team to terminate this person.
But that's not easy.

Also can't move this person within company.

Step one is Performance Improvement Plan.
Any recommendations on how to deal /advance with this.

Like all aspects of work managing employees also has its 80:20 rule, you'll spend 80% of your time managing 20% of your reports...

I think its very early to be thinking of managing the EE out of the company considering from reading the above no intervention has happened at all..

A PIP would indeed be the place to start, but try not to view it as the first step to managing the pesrson out, but rather the first step to recovering the situation, if it goes the other way then fine, but it shouldnt be the first port of call...
I speak with experience of managing people out, sometimes for bad performance/behaviour issues and even sometimes because my direct manager insisted on it because of petty revenge. But remember these are people - possibly doing the best they can and they have whole lives out of work including families that rely on them..

Alot of good stuff was covered above so I wouldnt bother covering it again. Remember in a PIP the goals should be the average performance of the employees peers, you shouldnt get the employee to sign up to a PIP where the goals are only attainable by the top 5 or 10%, this is real "manage out the door" stuff and unless thats the goal don't do it.

dudara

jon1981 wrote: »

As a former peer of mine once said " if the employee survives the PIP, you've designed it wrong".

Think he got that one wrong. If someone works through a PIP, that’s fantastic and exactly the outcome you want. A PIPis about helping someone bring their work & working style up to the standard required. It’s not a means to manage them out.

griffin100

This is PS based but I find it a good guide to implementing a PIP.

http://circulars.gov.ie/pdf/circular/per/2016/24.pdf