Diagnose Employee Performance

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How to Diagnose Employee Performance Problems

The Employee Performance Mystery Components

Employee performance components are often a mystery to management and co-workers. This is true for over achieving as well as under performing employees. While it is natural – and easy – to take credit for high performing employees, it is, of course, much more difficult to address the blame factor for those staff members not performing well.

You can normally be confident that the answer is not a single good or bad reason for an employee’s performance. Typically, the complexity of the human generates a combination of components that affect workplace performance. Learning about the most common components affecting performance often helps minimize or remove the mystery.

Before leaping headlong into diagnostic mode, however, there are two caveats of which you should be aware.

1. High level performance is usually a combination of two or more factors that, working in concert, support and enhance employee production.


2. Unacceptable performance is often caused by only a single component, if that factor is of enough importance.

Therefore, understanding – and trying to replicate – the factors involved in superior performance normally requires that you identify multiple components correctly. Conversely, if you identify at least one component contributing to diminished performance, that may be sufficient to help reverse the trend.

Finally, in either case, do not expect immediate changes in behavior after you’ve diagnosed the performance components. Most behavior patterns are developed over time, seldom being immediately affected by any one factor. Therefore, have patience with your expectations, particularly with lower performing staff. It is unlikely that a single traumatic event immediately changed performance and reversing the trend will also usually take some time.

Diagnose Employee Performance Problems to Correct Them

Employee performance problems are often caused by one or more of the following factors.

  • Talent or skill levels. From the newest mail room clerk to the CEO position, every job requires some level of talent and skills. Low performance is often the result of a skill deficiency that can be corrected once you identify this factor.

  • Ability to learn and perform. Everyone tends to have a different learning curve. Seldom are you able to generate a learning curve applicable to all of your employees. Humans are too complex for one-size-fits-all learning track solutions. Before high performance can appear, the learning component must happen.

  • Real understanding of duties and responsibilities. Have you heard about the communication component? Only about a thousand times? Management must write understandable job descriptions, have an open-door policy for questions and clarifications, and effectively communicate their expected performance levels. Regardless of your collective staff talent levels, should they misunderstand their duties and goals, it is fruitless to expect high performance.

  • Effort level offered. Each employee decides on the level of effort they will expend on a daily basis. Neither management nor co-workers can mandate increased effort with any real hope of success. Effort levels are internally created and displayed. Management can, however, motivate increased effort if they understand the internal makeup of each of their employees.

  • Persistence quotient. You have probably heard or read a variety of business or sports superstars who believe that persistence is more important than any other factor, including superior talent. An employee’s persistence quotient is a strong component in both success and failure in the workplace. Employees, particularly those learning new skills, who lack a high persistence quotient, will often under perform. Identifying these individuals and increasing positive reinforcement can sometimes improve performance.

  • Personal or non-workplace issues. This factor can often be the most troubling for a manager to identify and address. First, this is really a category, not a single factor. It may be difficult or impossible to even identify a problem because of privacy issues and a natural lack of desire for an employee to discuss financial, spousal, family related, or other negative conditions. Even if you do identify the non-workplace issue(s) causing problems, you’ll need to be very delicate in addressing the condition.


You cannot address or correct that which you don’t know. It is critical to diagnose employee under performance causes before deciding on treatment or correction. Most generators of low performance will be the result of one or more of these factors. Concentrate on identifying the root cause of under performance using these categories as a road map.

This step, once understood, will often give you the opportunity to take the appropriate remedial actions to help your employee improve performance and become a more valued team member. Your diagnosis will often dictate the best treatment. For example, you have an employee that has an extended learning curve. Instead of expecting him/her to perform at a high level immediately, spend more time reinforcing a new procedure and allow the employee to have more repetitions before you evaluate their new skill set.

The correct diagnosis is the key to your ability to turn around an employee’s performance. Once you know the cause, you can often reverse the effect with a minimum of downtime.