Handling Underperformers Constructively, Decisively, and Gracefully

Underperformance means that the employee is not performing at the level you're expecting them to. If you're not clear what good performance and bad performance is, then you're going to have some tough conversations, potential lawsuits, payouts, general loss of productivity and brand damage. This in turn, hurts hiring good talent, especially when you're dealing with a small talent pool in your region.

Defining Underperformance

In countries like Australia, workers have a large amount of protections under Fair Work. Dismissmal of an employee unjustly can warrant months of drawn out unproductivity, animosity and more. There are plenty of cases of lawsuits and payouts that happen in these scenarios where the company and ex-employee suffers unnecessarily. That's why a significant amount of content written here is about setting clear expectations.

Underperformance in relation to the written works here so far means:

• The employee is performing at a level or more lower than their formal level as defined in the levels section
• Failing to Demonstrate the Foundational Skills of the performance pyramid
• Other potential organization specific criteria such as not reaching a minimum level within a certain number of years

Deal with Underperformance in Probation

In Australia, the probation period is now typically 6 months. It used to be 3 months many years ago but I haven't seen that in a long time. Probation is a period where employees and employers can get to know each other a bit better and figure out if it's the right fit. It also affords some leeway for companies to let employees go without having to write big pay checks or huge amounts of paperwork and process.

If an employee is not hitting the standards like ones outlined in the probation expectations, then it's better to let the employee know earlier, give them a shorter notice (it's usually 2 weeks instead of a standard 4), and part ways on good terms. Remember, just because they aren't a good fit at your company, doesn't mean they aren't at another. Interview processes aren't perfect and the only way to really know if someone will do well is to work with them for some length of time where more data points and opportunities of observation are available when both sides are in nominal operating attitudes.

Underperformance Should Not Be Surprising

Employees should have onboarding sessions where expectations are clearly communicated. In relation to the probation period, the employee should know fairly early on that they're not performing as expected for their level. Give them the opportunity to adjust and do better or let them self opt out during that period. Do not wait until the end of the probation period i.e. 6 months to suddenly spring it upon them. Managers should know a few months in whether things are working out.

This also holds true with existing employees as well. Don't just throw them a sudden performance improvement plan (PIP) without prior discussions that their performance is not up to par. A PIP is a big deal as it can be typically viewed as a tool to fire an employee. This is a big psychological blow, especially for people who have never been put on one before. This could mean elevated stress, demotivation and just a downward spiral. If employees do get served with a PIP, it they should know it's coming and it can end amicably. As long as managers ensure that employees had been given the opportunity and support to improve early, then the relationship can be salvaged in the best case scenario and in the worse case scenario not be confrontational / highly emotional -- which is a good thing and keeps everything professional.

The frequent discussions with the levels document should indicate where the employee's gaps are and if they're below where you're expecting them to be, have a timeline of when they should be closing it by. This is shown by this example levels document of a Senior engineer not meeting expectations:

If the employee doesn't close the gaps by the agreed timeline, they should definitely be served with a PIP and at that point that should not be surprising to the employee.

The Performance Improvement Plan

Now, we get into the meat of how to deal with under performance once we've exhausted all options and need to put the under performer under the microscope. Just be careful that when looking for problems, there will always be something. Keep in mind that you're not looking to nitpick every detail, you just want to make sure they're back on track and on the right path to success and delivering value. Genuinely approach with care, respect and an open mind. The majority of the work is going to have to be on the employee though as they need to pull themselves together. That's where most of the control is for them anyway -- themselves.

Let's start with the performance improvement plan template to make sure the company and employee is protected with a clear written document. Hopefully the company doesn't need to use this paper trail but it's there just in case.

The document is pretty self explanatory in terms of filling it out. My thought process is to fill the PIP out myself first and let it stew to really make sure my thoughts are in place and it makes sense to put the employee under the PIP. I also consider things like personal circumstances that may have hindered their recent performance. Once filled out, I get HR to double check it and bounce ideas to make sure we've got bases covered. I also pull in the Tech Lead if there is one to make sure delivery is reasonable and that they're likely to be the one supervising the fine details like code reviews.

Once all that has been done with, I let the employee know I'll be putting them under the PIP in a 1:1 before sitting them down infront of the document to explain everything and the expectations. Make sure that the genuine intent is to help them improve and this is probably the official nudge they needed.

At this point, I've seen a few things happen:

• The employee pulls through. Even if you've built good rapport, I find this is still more on one of the tail ends of a distribution.
• The employee feels it's too much effort and resigns immediately. This is fine as they can afford to financially do so and the company no longer needs to invest additional time and effort in. Both sides can resolve this amicably.
• Effort still remains subpar and you're not seeing marked improvements. They may be interviewing and looking for other opportunities at this point and just treat this process as a formality to tide them over until they get an offer. Here, the only lever you have is to let the PIP run its course and terminate employment for underperformance. Not the greatest outcome for both sides as it wastes time with no genuine intent to improve from the employee.
• The employee needs to have their PIP extended. This can be the result of both a good outcome of the first PIP or a mediocre one but still has potential. Such as the employee hitting most of the improvement plan items and is stil genuinely trying or you want to reinforce the behaviour and see one more example of it.
• The employee is genuinely trying but just isn't making it. That's fine, the company needs can change and maybe the employee isn't a good fit here. Try your best to help them out as a good human being, give feedback transparency and see if you can help them with introductions for other employment.

Regardless of the path taken, I usually keep the first PIP reasonably short to make sure there's progress. Nobody wants a PIP hanging over their heads for a very long time either as it can be demoralizing.

People Can Still be Shocked and Surprised

People are humans with emotions. Despite all the prep to not make it a surprise, they can still be taken aback by surprise. Perhaps it was a communication issue from the manager's part, or that the employee is just dense and didn't understand the severity. This is where the employee can get defensive. They might be high achievers and very successful in past companies but haven't kept up with the change in the current company (especially in scale ups). Even the most stoic people can surprise you with a sudden burst of questions and passion.

The best thing to do here is to continue with the preparations and data points you've prepared. Send the email with the PIP document regardless and they'll let it sink in.

You'll be surprised that many will come back with very reasonable and logical responses and assessments after the emotions have run their course. This is the time to discuss and adjust, not when their emotions are high.

What to Assess During the PIP

During the PIP itself, there should be a series of touch points for giving feedback. They can be adhoc such as reviewing pull requests or done at interim intervals e.g. daily or weekly. This may sound like micro management and it absolutely is. When an employee is not doing well, they need more frequent guidance, not more autonomy. Unless the manager's tolerance for risk is high, letting an underperformer run with it seems like a formula for disaster.

What I normally do here is a weekly review. The employee does a self assessment on how the week has gone and the manager (me), leaves theirs blank. The employee prepares all the individual items that should be reviewed for the week. For software engineering, the main outputs of the employees are things like:

• Design documents such as architectures (software, solution, infra etc.)
• Pull requests / code reviews / code in general
• Story tickets
• Issue tickets

This assumes that the ticketing system has an audit log and commenting system to see user interactions. You'll want to see effort estimations, changing requirements (to the detriment or benefit of the employee), how long it stays in certain states.

Design documents and code are both technical pieces of work. It requirements thought and thinking. Did the design consider other possible solutions? Risks and mitigations? These things should be applied with the appropriate seniority lens. Ultimately all that work needs to convert to code at the IC roles and their contributions there need to be appropriate according to your company levels and standards.

Once both sides sit down for the feedback session, the manager can make their assessments and expectations clear. This is when the manager should fill out their assessment in front of the employee so that there's a fair chance for dialogue and explanation. This way promotes transparency and reduces chances of further surprises if the employee is met with an undesirable outcome at the end of the PIP period.

Here's a sheet you can use to keep track of assessments and materials throughout the PIP. Have the employee under the PIP do the heavy lifting and list all their pull requests, design docs etc. Notice that the dropdown has similar items as the performance review tabs. This is intentional performance good and bad are measured the same way.

Supporting the Ex-Employee

If everything goes well, not much more needs to be said. But if things don't and the person needs to be let go. Make sure you give them the respect they deserve as a person. Whether it's a resignation or a termination, make sure to give them their dignity. This means that during the process, everything should be kept confidential. You don't want to damage their reputation with their peers or create a performance bias when you're seeking 360 reviews from the peers.

Losing a job can hurt, especially when it's someone's main source of income. They will be hurt psychologically and it might spread to their families. When things end amicably, support them as best as you can with job referrals to a more suitable position, provide honest references. I've had to let people go where we've remained good friends. Gave them a referral and pointed out clear good points and bad points. Now they're thriving more than ever before in a role that suits their talents better. Who knows, they might become your boss down the road.

At the end of the day, work is work and a company is a heartless business entity. But the relationships we build and take away shouldn't be taken so lightly. So being human and supporting each other is a higher order cognitive ability that we should all exercise as much as possible.