Process Improvement Programme for incompetent employee

HI,
I have an employee who reports to me and is one of a team of ten who all have similar qualifications and in theory the same ability to do the job.

One of them is consistently under-performing. He is slow at completing work and it is always substandard. He has been with the company for 2 years, for the first year his performance was satisfactory.

The problem with him is that he is bone lazy and has no interest in what he is doing. I want to get rid of him, his work has to be re-done every time and he is taking up too much of other people's time.

We were stung last year by an incompetent employee taking us to the EAT so don't want that to happen again.

He has been on a Process Improvement Programme for the last 3 months and this is dto last 6 months. I am finding this so time consuming and head-wrecking.

Anyone else any experience with putting an employee through this process.

Thanks

I think it probably will continue to be head-wrecking for you and for him until it comes to a head. In fairness to yourself and your other employees, you will need to put some time limit on the amount of time you can spend with him.

Follow your company's procedure to the letter, and make sure he is very clear on the goals he has to achieve, in terms of quality and on-time delivery. Keep a very good paper trail.

Seperate question split off: have issued a warning to an incompetent employee and have been reviewing his work.

I agree with Complainer's advice.

What is a "process imporvement programme"? What are the objectives? What is the methodology? Who conducts it? How much does it cost? How do you know that it has been successful? Does the service provider refund the costs in the event that the "process imporvement intervention" is a failure?

I particapated on and conducted process improvement programmes but it was for teams of senior managers who identified the important business processes and allowed them to change, delete, improve them (the processes - not the employees!). It never dealt with individual employees but rather looked at the system from end to end.

Im not sure what you mean when you say you put the employee on a "process imporvement programme" it sounds a bit Orwellian to me!

argentina said:

We were stung last year by an incompetent employee taking us to the EAT so don't want that to happen again.

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If you have HR issues then surely you should engage the appropriate individual or firm?

Are you sure it's not a personality clash?
Are the jobs being asked of this employee part of his job spec.
Is he doing any other tasks that you are not aware of that the others are not doing. This may be taking his time.
Do you set a completion date for tasks to be finished or do you leave it open to interpretation?
One of the functions of management is motivating employees. Have you looked at how you do this.
Is the employee under stress or are there any factors outside of work that could be putting the employee under pressure.
Are you discriminating against this employee.
Do you perhaps see this employee as a threat to your position.
Are you being fair and honest in your assessmnet of this employee.
Are the tasks you assign specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and with a time frame around completion.
Does the employee need training. If yes, what training courses have you identified to help this employee. Time management, Assertiveness course?

When asking employees to do a job, Are you giving a clear an unambigous brief. If the brief is not clear then that is your fault.



There may be dozens of factors. Just make sure you have illiminated all of them before you go down the warnings/HR route. By all means seek guidance from HR but don't go in gung ho.I have seen this backfire on supervisors and managers in the past. Particularly if you work in a unionised company. In a unionised company it is easier to get rid of the non unionised manager than the unionised employee!

argentina said:

Anyone else any experience with putting an employee through this process.

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I've been involved in these on a number of occasions, and it is very time consuming and can indeed be head-wrecking. You need strong support and guidance from your HR specialist. They should be able to guide you as to how you need to manage this process so as to comply with all existing legislation.
Leo