Poor performers. Every agency has experienced them, and it’s likely they always will.

But what’s the most effective method of dealing with them? Is there an easy fix to the issue?

“A lot of the small businesses we work with call us and say, ‘I’ve got a member of my team who is performing terribly, and I want them out,’” explains Katy Wade, human resources consultant at Bespoke HR. 

“The problem is that we then have to explain all the steps they should have taken before getting to this point,” says Katy. “The ideal solution is that poor performers improve – they won’t do this without constructive feedback.”

According to Katy, your agency’s performance management system should be taking place from day one, regardless of whether performance is good or bad.

Doing this will ensure you have everything in place to be able to manage someone if their performance drops, rather than jumping to extremes.

“If you’ve got a poor performer in your business, who is not improving despite being given the opportunity to do so, you need to figure out how to safely exit them with minimum time and minimum cost,” says Katy. 

“Obviously, the ideal is that their performance improves and it all works out, but the reality is that, if someone’s performance is terrible and has been for a while, small businesses normally can’t swallow the costs of supporting a poor performer and decisions need to be made quickly.”

“I suppose the big thing is, if you make that wrong decision, or you don’t do things properly, then that’s also a huge cost to swallow.”

Join us for this month’s HR and operations mastermind, where Katy will be joining us to explore how you can deal with poor performers in your agency, and the steps required to ensure they’re handled correctly, safely, and with care.