Poor Work Performance falls under the broad heading of Incapacity. Poor work performance or failure by the employee to reach and maintain the employer’s work performance standards in terms of quantity and quality of output is a problem.
Examples: incompetence – lack of skill or knowledge; insufficiently qualified or experienced. incompatibility – bad attitude; carelessness; doesn’t “fit in.” inaccuracies – incomplete work; poor social skills; failure to comply with or failure to reach reasonable and attainable standards of quality and output.
It is implicit in all employment contracts that the employee undertakes to perform according to the reasonable, lawful, and attainable work performance standards set by the employer. Should the employee fail in this duty, then he is said to be “incapable” and the employer has the right to dismiss after following a fair procedure and ensuring that the dismissal is for a fair reason. Disciplinary action is never applied in cases of poor work performance. The reason is that poor work performance is usually not the fault of the employee, and the employee cannot be disciplined for something that is not his fault.
Substantive Fairness – Incapacity – Ill Health.
Poor performance due to ill health or injury is self-explanatory.
- Establish whether the employee’s state of health allows him to perform the tasks that he was employed to carry out.
- Establish the extent to which he is able to carry out those tasks.
- Establish the extent to which these tasks may be modified or adapted to enable the employee to carry out the tasks and still achieve company standards of quality and quantity.
- Determine the availability of any suitable alternative work.
- If nothing can be done in any of the above areas, dismissal on grounds of incapacity – ill health – would be justified.
A fair procedure encompasses:
- Establishing that the problem is poor performance and not misconduct.
- Identifying the causes of the poor performance
- Meeting with the employee and his line manager to establish the causes of the poor performance
- In particular, obtain the employee’s reasons for the poor performance
- Evaluate the employee’s reasons for the poor performance
- Obtain commitment from the employee regarding what action he will take to rectify the problem
- Inform the employee of what action the employer will take to assist in that process
- Agree on a reasonable time period for improvement.
- Follow up and monitor the progress.