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| Industry News |
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Poor Performance
October 2008
POOR PERFORMANCE
DEALING WITH A POOR PEOPLE MANAGER
One of your managers is a good performer but her people management skills are poor. Should you just accept this, or are there risks in not taking action? If so, what are they and what should you respond?
Domineering Manager
You have a very capable manager who is highly focused, but seriously lacks people skills. You have admitted that he has an abrasive management style, but have been reluctant to act in case she decides to leave. However, as no action is being taken, her attitude towards her staff is getting worse. As a result, you want to know what you need to be doing.
Poor employee relations
One risk that you should be aware of is the negative impact on employee relations that this manager is having. This does not just refer to the staff that she directly manages, but also to those who work in the vicinity of her outbursts. This can lead to staff taking more sickness absence than they normally would, and in the worst case, talented staff may leave because of it. Another problem is that it creates a bad example all around,, as what is clearly unacceptable behaviour isn’t being dealt with.
Bullying/harassment
There is a risk that one or more of her team could interpret her abrasive management techniques as bullying or harassment. If they do, you could have a claim on your hands for failing to tackle the problem. But even if an employee does not go this far, you could be faced with higher levels of sickness absence as staff become stressed and take sickies in order to avoid any further workplace confrontations.
Getting a grip
For these reasons, you really need to be seen to act decisively and to take charge of the problem. You can do this by working your way through the following steps:
Step 1. Arrange to meet. Arrange a meeting with this manager to discuss your concerns. Try and keep it informal at this stage – it may well be that she’s simply unaware of the issues.
Step 2. Outline the problem. Set out the problems, but do back them up with hard evidence, e.g. of incidents and dates. Also set out the detrimental impact that her aggressive management style is having on staff and make it clear that whilst she is a valuable employee, her behaviour is totally unacceptable.
Step 3. Be decisive. State a deadline for improvements to be made. Also set a date for a review meeting, e.g. in four weeks’ time. Do monitor her and make it clear that if there’s no improvement, disciplinary action is likely.
Step 4. Disciplinary action. If no improvement is made within this timeframe, or it’s insufficient, consider taking action under the terms of your capability procedure.
Tip. As disciplinary action, or even dismissal could be the outcome of this scenario, having hard evidence of her poor performance and the effect that it’s having on staff is vital. So do ensure that you have solid evidence of any staff complaints, other examples of her unacceptable behaviour, details of staff resignations or a high incidence of sickness absence amongst her team.
Due to the risks of bullying/harassment claims, meet and set out the standards that you expect, give a deadline for improvement. Warn the employee that she will face disciplinary action if she fails to change her style.
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