When it is time to analyse our staff performance, three questions demand an answer.

• Which employees were above the standard performance and should be promoted or deserve a bigger bonus?


• Which employees had a standard performance and deserved the standard bonus as well?


• Which employees were below standard and deserved an action plan?

Unfortunately, some companies don’t give much thought to this process.

Managing underperformance is always a stressful situation.

Pushing someone to success sometimes fails, and we should be expecting that to happen. It is always a possibility. And sometimes, even the more humane approaches hurt people.

When you have a clear, transparent, and humane process, the harsh parts of managing underperformance should be minimised.

It will not become easier with time, but nothing is wrong if you need to “share your employee with the competition”.

Key Points

• Have your employee write a Game Plan.


• Schedule follow-up sessions for steering.


• Have a proper deadline.


• What is at stake if the game plan fails should be crystal clear to both parties.


• Please just keep the entire process written; it will be useful if you need proof of accountability.

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