When personal issues affect employee performance: An Employee Relations case study

Karen Smith has been employed in your department for six years. During her tenure she has been a valuable employee, although during the past two years you've observed a drop in her work performance due to tardiness and absenteeism. The whole department is aware that Karen is facing many problems at home, and her co-workers have covered for her and even completed work for her when necessary, but they are beginning to complain. Although you had hoped that Karen's issues would improve and she would return to being the dependable employee you once knew, you must confront her about the work piling up.

When you meet with her the next morning and begin the discussion of her work performance, she starts to cry and tells you her husband has been abusive, her son is taking drugs, and she's been battling alcoholism and depression. You try to help her talk through these issues. You suggest that she visit the Employee Assistance Program and see her physician, and by the end of the meeting, she seems better. She leaves your office and starts a one-week vacation that you've just granted so she can begin to deal with these issues.

You feel she is taking steps to improve her situation. You realize that you never really did discuss her work performance, but you're confident that she'll be fine once she takes your advice.

1. What did this supervisor do right? 2. What could this supervisor have done better? 3. Using page 132, describe how you have had this conversation with Karen.

PAGE 132

much of what needs to be done to improve individual performance happens at the organizational level. It is about developing a performance culture, providing leadership, creating the right working environment and generally adopting 'the big idea' as explained earlier in this chapter. It is necessary to create what Jake Reynolds (5) calls a 'growth medium' by developing organizational practices that raise commitment amongst employees and 'give employees a sense of purpose in the workplace, grant employees opportunities to act upon their commitment, and offer practical support to learning'. At the individual level, improvement in performance can also be achieved through policies and practices designed to increase learning by coaching, mentoring and self-managed learning. Martyn Sloman (6) believes that the aim should be to increase 'discretionary learning', which happens when individuals actively seek to acquire the knowledge and skills required to achieve the organization's objectives. Line managers play a pivotal role in this by encouraging discretionary learning and supporting it through coaching and mentoring. Performance management provides a valuable platform for doing this. Essentially, the approach covers seven steps: 1. Select the goal - establish priority areas for action. 2. Define expectations - targets and standards. 3. Define performance measures - the basis upon which progress to achieving the goal can be monitored. 4. Plan the improvement programme. 5. Act - implement the improvement programme. 6. Monitor - review progress and analyse feedback to ensure the target or standard is achieved. 7. Extend the process - continue the development programme as required. MANAGING UNDERPERFORMERS Everyone's performance is improvable and the steps outlined above apply as much to high performers as to anyone else. But special action may be required to deal with people who do not meet expectations. When managing underperformers, the advice given by Charles Handy (7) that this should be about 'applauding success and forgiving failure' needs to 132 l Performance management