Has your company experienced slow steady grow and your people are struggling to keep up? Have they out grown their position but yet they are faithful, long term employees? What’s the answer? Can you continue to suffer loss of efficiencies and productivity due to their lack of performance? Isn’t it time to just move them out and you move on? First let’s look at what the Proverbs says about loyalty.
A faithful witness is hard to find. (3) He will not lie (4) or reveal secrets5 and is like the cold of snow at harvest time; he refreshes the soul of his masters 6 and is health to them. (7) The Lord preserves the faithful, (8) and he shall abound with blessings, (9) but the proud doer shall be harshly punished. (8)
Getting rid of them may not be the best option considering the fact that they are not only loyal but they have good work ethics and you know you can trust them to watch your back. So what now?
You basically have two options; one, retrain or two, find some place in the organization where they can use their talents and abilities. First let’s look at some of the tell tail signs.
Employee is not able to perform tasks assigned to them
They are unable to delegate effectively
They lack communications skills
Poor follow through on assignments
Consistently miss deadlines
Seem overwhelmed or overloaded
Once you start to see, at the first sign, these activities or the lack there of take action. If you let it persist over time it gets worse and makes correction is very difficult if not impossible.
Start with a clear understand of the individual’s job description and responsibilities, do they understand them completely? Ask them to assess their performance based on these responsibilities, ask for feedback on how to improve. Most loyal employees will be honest. I suggest at this point additional coaching or training in the areas they are lacking. Often times assessment tools can reveal areas where addition training would be beneficial.
If after reviewing their job duties and it is determined that the job has outgrown them, see if getting them help will alleviate the problem. You could provide an assistant to support them or someone with more experience to take the lead while training them in the process.
If reassignment is the next step, assessments such as DISC, Myers Briggs, etc. can be helpful. These assessment can help you identify the individual strengths, weaknesses and areas of likes and dislikes of the individual. Look for positions in your company that play to their strengths which could lead to better performance.
Hopefully you have a clear org chart and others in leadership position that can take on the reassigned person and help them develop in their new area of responsibility.
Improved training and reassignment can lead to improved performance, increased profitability and more importantly a happier loyal work force.
3) Proverbs 20:6 4) Proverbs 14:5 5) Proverbs 11:3 6) Proverbs 25:13 7)Proverbs 13:17 8) Psalms 31:23 9) Proverbs 28:20