Fire
Your Poor Performers Now!
(As seen
in HR.com
and referenced in ProfitXtra.)
By
Tim Rutledge
The
old adage is still true - it's about quality,
not quantity. If it wasn't, then Donald Trump
wouldn't have anyone to fire at the end of The Apprentice.
Keeping
good employees is essential, especially with the baby-boom
generation retiring en masse in a few years.
Statistics show the demand for labour through to 2013
will exceed supply by 35 million jobs. The luxury of
working on a "replacement basis" no longer
exists, and you can't expect to substitute one knowledge
worker for another anymore.
Still,
you also can't afford to keep people in your organization
who just aren't as productive as they need to be. Employee
retention is important, but not at the expense of losing
the people that you want to keep, and keeping the people
you'd rather pink slip.
Quite
simply, you have to exit your poor performers now, and
here are four reasons why:
1.
It's not a secret: everyone knows who the poor
performers are.
Poor
performers stand out like dandelions in a well-manicured
lawn. You're wrong to think nobody else knows who the
underachievers are - everybody knows. They
just can't do anything directly about it, except wonder,
"When is our manager going to do something about
so-and-so...?"
You
have to weigh the balance of consequences - is it in
your best interest to exit these individuals, or should
you steer clear of the extra work and the potential
fallout that might come from doing the "right"
thing? Sure, it's less stressful to stay with the status
quo and not rock the boat, even though the proverbial
boat is sinking under the weight of these poor performers.
But if you wait until the boat actually sinks, it's
too late to start bailing.
2.
Performance evaluations exist for a reason.
A
report on employee engagement by Towers Perrin suggests
nothing destroys an employee's trust more than inconsistency
- or worse, outright contradiction - between words and
actions. If you don't exit your poor performers, you're
basically saying that underachievement in the workplace
is acceptable. This discourages top performers from
working at their full potential; they're not sure what
you're rewarding, but its definitely not productivity
and results. It also says you're incapable of critically
evaluating the members of your team. As a result, you
lose your credibility with your staff and the respect
of your peers as well.
3.
Retaining talent is your top priority.
Accordingly,
good performers won't stay in a work environment that
tolerates poor performers. Studies show that employees
engaged with their workplace generate 22 per cent higher
productivity and 27 per cent higher profits for their
firms. However, it's incredibly disengaging to work
with individuals who aren't pulling their weight, or
with a manager who isn't doing the same by not showing
poor performers the door. How long is it, therefore,
before your top performers start exiting themselves
from your firm and you begin to suffer? The current
labour market is craving talented people, so it should
be fairly easy for them to find a more engaging work
experience. And eventually, someone will wonder: Why
are you keeping the people that no one else wants, and
losing the people that everyone wants?
4.
Because they really want to leave - they just
don't know how.
Sometimes,
your poor performers are employees who actually want
to leave your company, but they don't know how to exit
themselves. They're out of touch with the current labour
market. Their last interview was years ago, and they
may not even have a current resume. The thought of changing
jobs is so overwhelming that the default command is
inertia.
But
it's not too late to encourage these poor performers
to get back into the game. Statistics indicate that
40 per cent of the workforce is actively looking to
change jobs and 63 per cent of mid-level managers are
polishing their resumes. An engaged organization will
offer career management counseling, such as resume clinics
and interview skills training, so the poor performers
will have the courage to show themselves out.
The
future is now. If you want to retain your key performers,
you can't afford to put poor performers on your payroll.
You can't have a reputation that suggests you tolerate
mediocrity. You can't believe top employees won't be
recruited away from your firm if you don't provide them
with positive answers to the question, "Why am
I working for you?" The cost of replacing a knowledge
worker can push upwards to 250 per cent of their salary,
if they can be replaced at all.
So,
be smart and give your good employees the best reason
to stay with your firm: poor performers are unwelcome,
and that's why you're exiting them now.
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