A single incompetent team member can impact the productivity of the entire team. In an organization where the workflow needs everyone to contribute equally to finish a certain task, individual contribution is very important.
There are usually two types of incompetent people. The first type is the ones who have all the skills required for the job but are too lazy and ignorant to work. The other type is the ones who are not skillful and don’t know much about their role and what is expected of them in the team. In either case, the impact is huge on the entire whole team. If the responsibility of that incompetent employee is your responsibility, what would you do? To help you better with this, we have listed down a few tips to manage them.
1)Address the issue:
If you find a team member who isn’t performing up to their potential, then record the situations where they are underperforming and need swift action on it. Talk to that individual and ask them where they are facing the trouble. If possible, ask them how you can help them to perform well at their job and meet the expectations of the organization. After this, give them some time to see how they respond and try to prove themselves.
2)Offer training:
When you feel an employee is incompetent, check whether he/she is fit for the job or not. If the employee lacks skills to perform the job, offer relevant training to upskill themselves. When you invest in them, you are giving them more responsibility to prove themselves. For training, you don’t need to spend a hefty amount. All you need is a learning management system like Totara which helps to create, manage and deliver content effectively. The costs involved are also way less as compared to offline training.
3)Give their space:
Lack of performance, personal problems, and mental health issues can also be a factor. Talk to the employee and give them their space to recover and come back. If possible, give them a few months off to recover from whatever they are going through. If it’s a health issue, pay for their recovery. In this way, you are building a great healthy environment in the organization.
4)Be prepared to make the hard choices:
Even after giving them time to recover or opportunities to upskill themselves if they are not competent enough, then don’t hesitate to look for a new replacement. If you don’t make the tough decisions, it will impact the entire team as once incompetency can spoil the hard work of the entire team. Thus, even though it’s hard to leave out employees, you have no other option.
5)Right the right people:
Last but not least, if you hire the right people then there is less chance for incompetency. When you hire people, along with doing the obvious research about their experience, educational background, and other stuff, be particular about their skills and behavioral patterns. Conduct hard assessments that test their skills that are relevant and needed to perform well at the job. Likewise, check for any red flag in their resume. Conduct behavioral assessments that help to know more about them. Are they willing to learn more? How do they deal with work pressure? And a few other questions you need to test their ability to cope up with certain situations.
Conclusion:
You might not always have the choice to hire the people that you want but you can manage them effectively to get the job done. We hope the above-mentioned steps help you to manage the incompetent employees in the organization more effectively and make the best use of them.
