{"id":368,"date":"2018-05-10T16:27:14","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T20:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewgsg.com\/?p=368"},"modified":"2025-05-15T21:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T01:31:13","slug":"are-you-struggling-to-understand-why-workers-under-your-supervision-arent-performing-as-desired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/10\/are-you-struggling-to-understand-why-workers-under-your-supervision-arent-performing-as-desired\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Workers Under Your Supervision Aren\u2019t Performing as Desired?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Gerald L. DeSalvo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you having difficulty getting some employees to perform up to expectations and are not sure why?\u00a0 This article will discuss the wide variety of factors that can affect their performance.<\/p>\n

Consideration of these factors in your analysis of the employee\u2019s performance should help you find the solutions for them.\u00a0 It should also help you to focus on those factors that you can realistically influence, while minimizing time and effort on factors outside of your control.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Factors Effecting Employee Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

How an employee performs at work is subject to numerous factors such as: individual ability and personal circumstances, the organizational design, culture and support for performance, and external influences outside of the work environment.\u00a0 Trying to determine which influences are causing substandard performance can be both confusing and time consuming, as few workplace performance situations involve just one or two influencing factors.\u00a0 In many cases, there may be one prominent cause but many secondary causes.<\/p>\n

One common mistake managers make when looking at substandard performance is to reflexively blame the problem on a lack of training.\u00a0 This tendency to prematurely identify a lack of training as the underlying cause of a workplace performance deficiency is sometimes due to a lack of\"\" understanding of the many non-training<\/em> factors contributing to performance.<\/p>\n

Often, this tendency to prematurely select training as a solution is a result of pressure from superiors or other stakeholders to \u201cdo something\u201d quickly.\u00a0 Counting \u201cbutts in the seats\u201d of a training program provides easily quantifiable proof that the organization is doing something<\/em> about performance issues, even if a lack of training is not the primary cause. You can readily observe this tendency to quickly identify \u201ctraining\u201d as the solution to performance problems in many public safety related incidents that are reported in the media every week.<\/p>\n

This is not to say, however, that training, when properly developed and delivered<\/em>, cannot be an appropriate solution to many performance problems.\u00a0 It is a very effective method when addressing knowledge <\/em>and skill <\/em>deficiencies (Knowledge<\/u> = information that can be directly applied to the performance of a task\/Skill<\/u> = an observable ability to perform a learned psychomotor task).<\/p>\n

Some Non-Training Related Causes of Poor Workplace Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, what are some of the \u201cnon-training<\/em>\u201d related causes of poor performance? Some of the non-training<\/strong> related causes of workplace performance problems are:<\/p>\n

Individual Worker Factors That Affect Performance<\/u><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

a<\/strong>.\u00a0 a worker who is physically and\/or mentally unable to perform the task (temporarily or permanently)<\/p>\n

b<\/strong>.\u00a0 a poor work ethic or attitude on the part of the employee<\/p>\n

c<\/strong>.\u00a0 an employee\u2019s personal situation (e.g., family issues, physical and mental health, finances \u2013 important to determine if long or short term as that adds context)<\/p>\n

Organizational Factors That Affect Performance<\/u><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

a<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of effective leadership and management (e.g., unqualified or unsuitable leaders\/managers [lack of job knowledge, experience, training, leadership traits])<\/p>\n

b<\/strong>.\u00a0 a poorly designed organizational structure (e.g., no clear chain of command, duplication of effort)<\/p>\n

c<\/strong>.\u00a0 staff shortages and budget shortfalls<\/p>\n

d<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of effective recruiting, selection and hiring procedures (e.g., a haphazard hiring process resulting in employees poorly suited to the organization\u2019s needs)<\/p>\n

e<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of effective written policies and procedures on how to do a job correctly and covering the standards of professional conduct<\/p>\n

f<\/strong>.\u00a0 no consistent understanding and\/or enforcement of, the performance policies, standards and procedures (e.g., ineffective dissemination of policies, inadequate disciplinary system)\"\"<\/p>\n

g<\/strong>.\u00a0 a hostile work environment (e.g., sexual harassment, discriminatory practices)<\/p>\n

h<\/strong>.\u00a0 poorly designed and implemented training programs (in those organizations that have them)<\/p>\n

i<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of task familiarity and workplace performance support (e.g., task not required on frequent basis, lack of practice, complex task with many steps but inadequate workplace support [e.g., lack of needed job aids, flowcharts, step-by-step guides, operation manuals])<\/p>\n

j<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of effective and timely performance feedback to the employee (e.g., via a standardized employee performance evaluation process)<\/p>\n

k<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of positive incentives (e.g., salary, benefits, recognition and awards)<\/p>\n

l<\/strong>.\u00a0 disincentives to good performance (e.g., the better job performance the more work assigned, assignments\/promotions based on who you know rather than performance)<\/p>\n

m.\u00a0 unethical, illegal, and\/or corrupt practices within the organization<\/p>\n

n<\/strong>.\u00a0 a negative or dysfunctional organizational culture (e.g., one that emphasizes individual success over team success or the broader organizational goals)\"\"<\/p>\n

o<\/strong>.\u00a0 poor working conditions (e.g., substandard and\/or poorly maintained facilities, equipment)<\/p>\n

p<\/strong>.\u00a0 a lack of needed equipment and technology (e.g., including effective IT systems\/software and hardware)<\/p>\n

q<\/strong>.\u00a0 external hostility directed against the organization and its employees (e.g., from customers, clients, internal and external stakeholders, the public, special interest groups)<\/p>\n

In Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we can observe from the long list of non-training related causes of poor worker performance, there are many factors that can influence individual and\/or group performance.\u00a0 Understanding and identifying the correct causes of the worker performance gap are key factors in selecting successful solutions.\u00a0 Managers who can do this in an effective and timely manner will have an advantage in today\u2019s constantly changing and complex workplace. Hopefully, this article will help you with that difficult task.<\/p>\n

\n

Author<\/strong>:\u00a0 Gerald L. DeSalvo is the Managing Editor of WGSG.\u00a0 He has more than 38 years of\u00a0 experience in military intelligence, municipal policing, federal law enforcement and international security management\u00a0 He has lived and worked for over 15 years in Latin America, Asia and Southern Europe.<\/p>\n

Copyright (c) 2018.\u00a0 All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Gerald L. DeSalvo Are you having difficulty getting some employees to perform up to expectations and are not sure why?\u00a0 This article will discuss the wide variety of factors that can affect their performance. Consideration of these factors in your analysis of the employee\u2019s performance should help you find the solutions for them.\u00a0 It … Continue reading “Why Workers Under Your Supervision Aren\u2019t Performing as Desired?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,15,8,14,9],"tags":[42,41,43,44,40,10],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-management","category-performance-improvement","category-supervision","category-worker-performance","category-workplace-training","tag-firstlinesupervision","tag-ojttraining","tag-trainingdevelopment","tag-workerperformance","tag-workplacetraining","tag-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1303,"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions\/1303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewgsg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}