REPLY TO THESE POSTS (BREIFLY):

POST#1:

There is a whole list of factors that determine performance like cooperation, innovation, quality, and quantity, the list goes on and on. It doesn't matter if you have the best factors included in your performance management system, if you forget one factor such as attention to detail, then all your efforts could end up being wasted.

Abilities and traits are important, we know that usually abilities and traits are steady or constant while knowledge and skills are easily modified meaning not fixed, case in point "we students in this class are here to improve our knowledge base and skills by taking this course". Last but not least there's context. This is a very important piece of the puzzle because depending on what context a particular item is looked at, the whole subject of the conversation can change. I see context every day at my present job. Some employees come in and they are ready to go, I'm giving 110% today, while others just come and just do the minimum obviously they would rather be someplace else than here at work.

The big 5 are traits that are considered stable traits meaning that if a person is observed and the behavior is checked against certain measures you would immediately be able to determine which trait that person displays. Extroversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to experience are those traits. Some examples of cognitive abilities would be: problem-solving, memory, attention, and visual processing these are the basis for learning.

POST#2:

Most HR professionals must discuss performance with an employee, and it can be difficult to determine the best way to navigate the conversation when the employee's performance has had issues and been poor. The first thing to do to start addressing and anticipating performance problems is to identify whether knowledge and skills, abilities and other traits, or context are hampering performance and then you can start helping the employee improve their performance. According to New York Law, they explain 7 steps to success that include:

1. Schedule the meeting and set the stage - Make it clear what the meeting is about and what you want to discuss, emphasize that its important and you want it to be productive.
2. Describe the problem - Focus on the employees results and behaviors in concrete non-judgmental terms. Use specific examples and let the employee respond.
3. Reinforce performance standards - Review the company standards and what you expect from them as an employee.
4. Develop a plan for improvement - When preparing for the meeting you should cre.ate a plan for helping the employee improve so that during the meeting you can suggest these solutions and agree on a method for improving performance.
5. Offer your help. - Offer the employee help obtaining and necessary training, resources, or other assistance to achieve performance goals.
6. Inject positive comments if possible - A little positive reinforcement can go a long way with an employee but don't be inaccurate just for the sake of being kind.
7. Emphasize potential - Make sure to tell the employee that you believe in his or her ability to improve performance.

I felt like these 7 steps would be very effective at addressing poor performance. The case study I found to use as an example was from ITBMC founder Mike Sisco. The case study described how the employee in question was abusing others, both teammates and clients, and was not producing at a level expected for the position. This employee also fit a minority category. He explained that his approach has always been to deal with issues as they come up and deal with them as fairly and consistently as possible, regardless of sex, race, or another minority category. He handled the situation by coaching the employee about the problems on two separate occasions and made it clear that he expected improvement. He was very specific and gave him examples of the unacceptable behavior. On the 2nd coaching session, he told him that if it happened again, he would be put on a formal improvement plan and that if the issue occurred during the improvement plan time frame, he would be terminated. The issue ended up occurring again so then he sat down with the employee and delivered a formal "work improvement" discussion. In this discussion, he gave the employee specific critique with examples that reinforced his concerns and handed him a written document stating the problem and specific resolution steps he must take to continue employment. Finally, the employee was notified directly that continued unacceptable performance that led to this discussion would result in dismissal.