The Danger of Mediocre Employees

Great companies are built with great employees. However, why do managers and business owners allow mediocrity to remain? Failure to deal with an employee who exhibits sustained poor performance can deeply damage a company and produce a ripple effect that affects morale and business growth. Not to mention the risk of future liabilities that eventually occur with problem employees.

Let’s explore why bad employees persist and how we can change the process to close the door on mediocrity.

It may start with the challenge with finding the right person for the right job in the first place, or something has changed in the employee’s life. Almost always, it’s a direct result of ignoring telltale early warning signs and failing to take appropriate and timely action.

Those warning signs might include:

• Attendance issues – tardiness, excessive days off, leaving early
• Mistakes and errors – more than usual for your business
• Bad attitude – towards other employees or management
• Insubordination – Questioning directives, challenging management
• Poor production – missed deadlines, lack of a team effort

The Dangers of Delayed Action

The cost of replacing bad hires can be as high as 250% of an employee’s annual pay, even if the problem is resolved within the first 6 months of hire. Those costs escalate when bigger problems begin to materialize and intensify.

Here are a few results of allowing mediocre employees to continue

• Waste of time an effort. Mediocre employees tend to drain a disproportionate about of time and attention from management and co-workers.
• Errors and Missed Deadlines. Poor performers can contribute to mistakes and missed performance promises that result in reduced customer satisfaction and company reputation.
• Lost opportunities. Spending your limited payroll dollars on a poor performer could be preventing the hire of a stellar performer that could make your business better.
• Bad Morale. The competent members on your team may resent that you allow someone to continue in mediocrity and this could result in a spread of poor performance.
• Employer Liability Exposure. The longer a mediocre hire stays on, the risks increase for injuries, wage and hour claims, harassment claims, accommodation requests, claims of a hostile work environment, and a range of other employer liability risks.

Employer liability exposure has the greatest potential to hurt a business. This is where we see so many problems that could have been prevented by a more aggressive stance towards poor performers.

To some extent, business owners can minimize the risks of poor performers by adopting better recruitment and onboarding efforts to ensure individuals hired are a good culture and competency fit.

What You Can Do to Combat Mediocrity

• Communication. Establish and communicate well-defined employee performance expectations that outline company rules of conduct and standards.
• Awareness. Recognize early warning signs of unacceptable performance.
• Action. Communicate early and often with employees who are not making the grade, and if applicable, implement a documented performance improvement plan.
• Documentation. Document the full details of performance discussions and reprimands.
• Termination. Don’t rush this, but ensure you are on a path towards absolute employee improvement or timely termination.

CAUTION: Be careful to avoid discrimination in any way, or otherwise be inconsistent with your performance correction actions and speech. Be sensitive to your employees and be sure you are giving all employees the same opportunity to improve.

Every business struggles with poor performers at times, and when the labor market is tight, you’re more likely to hire someone that can’t keep up. The most important takeaway? Don’t ignore the warning signs and act quickly to keep your business humming at optimal performance.

Don’t hesitate to contact the HR experts at Infinium should you need assistant with any employee related management issues.