Tell your bad worker how well they're doing

An annoyance of mine in the workplace is managers who don't manage bad workers. By bad workers I mean the kind of person who thinks they're doing a good job, but isn't. They're just bad at what they do. This may be because they don't have the required skills, knowledge, aptitude, ability or attitude. However you look at it, they're just bad at their job.

In a previous post I talked about sacking the manager who thinks they're doing a good job when they're not. This is the other side of that coin - dealing with an employee who has no idea they're not doing a good job, but no-one is telling them. Instead, they're being told what a good job they're doing and thereby inflating their sense of self-importance.

I know such a person. Bob is awful at what he does. Bob's manager though, Berk, isn't telling him. Instead of trying to deal with Bob's lack of ability to do a good job, Berk is allowing Bob to just get on with whatever Bob thinks is an effective way of working. This is driving me nuts as Berk is effectively burying his head in the sand staying aloof to the issue of bad work. Meanwhile, Bob is ambling along, being told 'you're doing a great job', where in reality, he isn't.

I've tried to give Berk some feedback about Bob and Bob's ability to do the job, but I've not been listened to. So I have to put up with Bob's incompetence and air of 'I know what I'm doing' when in reality, Bob should not even be here.

Those of you who know me, don't try figure out who this might be. I know many people in the business I work for this could be true of, and as such this is a message to try and convey the sheer frustration I have at this situation.

If you want some 'harder' information about the impact of this bad work here you go:

- workload get spread to the team that should be dealt with by one person

- Bob talks 'confidently' about a given topic when they're actually talking shit

- Bob's perception of his own workload is mountainous and insurmountable - this means Bob rants and is negative towards others that Bob perceives as being less busy

- when team members learn about Bob's negativity they in turn feel negative towards Bob and indirectly towards Berk for not managing him

- deadlines are missed, meetings not attended, wrong information being delivered

So, if you are Berk, please deal with Bob's inability to do the job. If you are Bob, then God help you in your career and life in general.

Getting the basics right

I was able today to help a colleague with an area of work he was struggling with - time management. It's an oft quoted area of difficulty that junior staff just don't know how to handle. I was also able to help a colleague think about how to set realistic objectives for team members. What came out from both of these conversations is the importance of getting the basics right. And when I say the basics I really do mean the basics.

In the probation period of any new joiner the onboarding process should ensure a range of things are happening so that person is able to be effective in their job. A lot of that though has to do with the essentials of the job role. We can expect someone to hit the ground running when joining, but if we're not giving them the right start, how can we expect them to succeed? A person can only be pro-active so much before they're just facing obstinance and challenges.

So what is this onboarding process all about? Research has shown that an effective onboarding process increases the amount of discretionary effort an employee chooses to exercise. Discretionary effort is defined as the amount of effort an employee chooses to exercise over and above the bare minimum. So, the better the onboarding, the more engaged and productive the employee. Therefore the onboarding process has to be robust, inclusive and wide ranging.

What you'll find is these suggestions seem to cover trivial things but you'll be surprised how much of a difference they truly make.

Here are my suggestions for an effective onbaording programme:

Week 1

- orientation of the building including things like facilities department, toilets, canteen, vending machines, exits and entrances to the building.

- meeting everyone in your department and going for a department/team lunch

- meeting people from other departments who are key to their role

- all the technical stuff (PC, phone) set up and ready before they arrive

- showing them things like file structures, networks, intranets, extranets, wikis, etc

- give them an overview of the organisation structure

- meaningful tasks to start getting on with

- arrange a buddy

Week 2

- setting objectives for the probation period

- introducing them to other departments and getting them to arrange their own meetings

- assigned work relevant to their role

- explain company history and values

- talk them through HR processes and L&D plans

Week 3

- weekly meeting to discuss progress and review their learnings to date

- buddy lunch

- arrange possible shadowing of other team members

Week 4

- weekly meeting

- explanation of competency frameworks

- explanation of different business units, how they contribute to the company and how you work with them all

- evaluation of how they are adapting to the work environment and coaching to improve their effectiveness

This is what should happen in the first month. There should be a lot more that happens which you will need to identify. But if you can get these basics right then things such as performance reviews, giving feedback, coaching, all become easier because you've already covered these aspects. Conversations can then centre on actual job role, tasks, development, etc.