Getting performance, behaviour back on track – Kia Tu

Almost everyone comes to work wanting to succeed. You will have set expectations with your team members about the standards of performance and behaviour needed if we are to deliver on our vision as an organisation. You will have used feedback and possibly coaching to help them achieve those standards. But, for many reasons, even good employees can struggle to consistently meet the standards we set. When performance or behaviour goes ‘off track’, our job is to tackle the problem early, understand it, and work with the individual to resolve it promptly. Occasionally that’s not enough and, although it may be too early for disciplinary action, you need to take a more formal approach to fix the problem. It’s time for a getting performance or behaviour back on track (GPBOT) intervention using the process described below (and in the Flowchart). Here’s how we suggest you do that. If in doubt – ask your manager or People & Capability.

When to use “Getting Performance, Behaviour Back on Track” (GPBOT) intervention?

When you see signs of deteriorating or poor performance. [Note: These issues usually get worse if neglected].
When you see behaviours that are unacceptable to you e.g. breach our employment agreements or standards. It’s your job to maintain standards and bad habits are contagious
After you have tried unsuccessfully with lower-level responses such as feedback or a mild “telling off”.
Well before any question of discipline or warnings arises. Small problems are easier to fix and we owe people fair warning when we consider something unacceptable.

Our GPBOT process

Our process recognises that we need to be well prepared for these conversations and that we can’t ‘fix’ the problem until we understand it. Use our conversation plan to prepare for and conduct the conversation and as a record of the meeting. The early part of these conversations is all about coming to understand why performance or behaviour is below our expectations and getting agreement that this must be fixed. Then we need the team member’s agreement on a turnaround plan and we need to monitor progress until expected performance is restored. See the flowchart for a detailed step by step explanation of the process and our guidelines for GPBOT to help you resolve these issues quickly and effectively. If the initial turnaround plan is not working, you may need to put in place a performance improvement plan. Make it clear to the employee that if specific improvements are not made within a defined time frame, disciplinary action – including potentially dismissal – may be taken.

Some common problems and advice on handling them

See “typical remedies” for advice on handling the following kinds of problems; lack of knowledge/skill, lack of understanding of job requirements, lack of the necessary competence/skill, lack of commitment/effort, lack of time/materials/resource, personal/non-work factors, lack of improvement.

Handling personal problems that impact work performance

Sometimes problems in their personal life can impact a team member’s work performance. These could include family difficulties, money problems, gambling, drinking, relationship issues, grief after a death, depression etc. As managers, we have an obligation to care for our people (including expert counselling support through our EAP program but also to ensure that the impact of the situation, on work performance, is minimised. Often, these are emotional and sensitive areas and our handling of them must reflect that. The purpose of our conversations with team members in these cases is to resolve any workplace impact and also to help them solve their problems themselves (if possible). We have put together a set of guidelines for handling personal problems that impact work performance and a conversation plan to assist you in managing these challenging types of performance problems.