6 Ways To Deal With Unproductive Employees

Are unproductive employees draining your resources? Follow these tips to stop the outflow today.

Employee performance is a huge contributor to the success of any business. Those who drag their feet and produce low quality work represent a major strain on a company’s time and resources. Unfortunately, there are too many  of these individuals to ignore. A recent study conducted by Proudfoot Consulting found that a whopping 29% of workers are unproductive.

If you’ve identified one of the under-performing workers in your agency, it’s time to take action. Follow these 6 steps for dealing with unproductive employees to save your company money and your managers time.

1. Meet in person
Scheduling a one-on-one, in person meeting with your employee alerts him  that the situation is serious. Individual performance should never be  addressed in group settings and phone calls are too casual a method which also may result in misunderstandings.

2. Be straightforward
Know going in to the meeting what you are going to say and stick to your guns. Resist the urge to sugarcoat your message and be as direct as possible.

3. Don’t criticize
Very few people respond well to criticism. So don’t frame the conversation in terms of what the employee is doing wrong. Instead, focus on the problems your company has been facing as of late (those resulting from the employee’s poor performance) and what the employee can do to fix them.

For example—say an employee has been extremely unproductive while writing blog posts for a client. Rather than say “you’re wasting time while writing,” comment that your bill for said client has been much higher as of late and you’re worried about procuring the funds to pay it. Emphasize to the employee how much it would help you if he could churn out each post in less than 40 minutes.

4. Encourage dialogue
After you’ve proposed the changes you’d like to see in your employee’s behavior, ask him or her how he or she feels about each specific suggestion. Ask if the employee believes he or she can help you in the ways you’ve suggested and, if not, why. If your employee is defensive, ask what he or she would do in your position.

5. Make a decision
At the end of the meeting you’ll inevitably be faced with a decision. You must decide whether to replace the employee, retain him on probationary status, or change his or her responsibilities. Give yourself time to mull over the information you’ve collected in the meeting, but be quick in announcing your decision. You’ll save your employee unnecessary anxiety and yourself time and resources.

6. Acknowledge changes
Should you decide to keep your problem employee on staff, make sure to continue to monitor his or her behavior. Hopefully, you’ll recognize improvements and it’s important to acknowledge them. Praise is an effective motivator and positive feedback is necessary to fueling productivity. If you want to continue to see gains from your employee, seek out opportunities to show you appreciate the changes he or she has made.

For more tips on tackling the challenges faced by an unproductive workforce, check out Minda Zetlin’s article for Inc.

In search of other ways to ease the burden of your managers? Consider outsourcing your accounting and contact our outsourced accounting and CFO services experts today.

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