WHAT IS POOR WORK PERFORMANCE?

One of the most important obligations of an employee is to place the full extent of
his/her capabilities at the disposal of the employer, and to perform his/her duties
within satisfactory standards as set by the employer.

It is the responsibility of line management to assess the performance of employees
reporting to them, in order to ensure the achievement of performance standards.
Satisfactory output and achieving satisfactory performance standards are the
essence of the employer/employee relationship. Employees’ performances are
determined by business objectives, in order to encourage the consistent achievement
of high levels of performance.

In assessing the performance of employees, line managers must identity less than
satisfactory performance and the management thereof in order to achieve satisfactory standards. In this regard, positive intervention by line management, in
the form of counselling sessions, feedback discussions, coaching and training should
take place in an attempt to rectify unsatisfactory performance. In some circumstances however, positive intervention may not rectify the performance
problem and continued unsatisfactory performance may result in the dismissal of the
employee.

Where the desired standard of performance is not met, despite guidance/counselling,
such substandard performance should be dealt with in accordance with Schedule 8 of
the Labour Relations Act.

PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSING AN EMPLOYEE’S PERFORMANCE

Performance standards and expectations must be clearly established, understood by
the employee and communicated by his/her manager. These standards and expectations may be established collectively through, inter alia, letters of appointment, job profiles, inductions, standing instructions, policies and procedures as well as daily performance requirements of the job.

Providing feedback is a very important element of performance assessment in
general. The objective of performance counselling or feedback sessions is to provide
specific feedback pertaining to an employee’s performance on an ongoing basis in
order to maintain or improve performance.

Management is ultimately responsible for setting required standards of performance.
Standards have to be realistic in terms of what can be achieved in practical and
objective terms. This also applies to allowing for a reasonable period during which
the desired level of performance should be achieved.

Specific feedback and supporting examples should be provided by the employee’s
manager during discussion in order to ensure understanding. Standards should not
be allowed to deteriorate, as it will become more difficult to re-establish the required
standards at a later stage. If management fails to recognize and act upon
deterioration of standards, this could be perceived as condonation of such
deterioration. It is therefore management’s responsibility to monitor performance
continuously.

Performance assessment can broadly be divided into the following elements, namely:

INFORMAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
Preventative, proactive intervention by management, by identifying and correcting sub-standard performance. Management has a responsibility to monitor performance continuously and to provide guidance, training and support, in order to correct poor performance. This responsibility does not remove the responsibility for the accomplishment of goals by the employee.

FORMAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
Progressively firmer steps by means of recorded counselling sessions, outlining the consequences of continued lack of improvement, such as a formal poor work performance investigation. However, the primary objective of formal performance assessment is to allow for correction before instituting the investigation.

POOR WORK PERFORMANCE INVESTIGATION
Once it has been determined that a formal poor work performance investigation will take place, pre-notification of the investigation should be given. Guidelines for Poor Work Performance is contained in the Conditions of Service.