How Under-Performing Staff Members Affect Workplace Culture

The impact that a non-performing staff member can have on your team and the overall organisation can be significant. At best, you have a resource that is not producing the work needed to sustain the business needs.

At worst, you have someone who’s influence on others in the organisation is such that their behaviour spreads and the workplace culture become negatively impacted. When this happens, you no longer have one employee to performance manage but have multiple issues around other staff members and perhaps your entire team or department making it very hard to contribute positively and significantly to the business objectives.

In our recent annual survey, we found that 12% of people leave organisations due to cultural fit. Therefore, if one of your team members is underperforming and it is impacting your culture, there is a real possibility of staff moving on due to it no longer being a great place to work for them and a failure by leaders to address the issue.  This type of cultural effect in the workplace also takes a significant impact on your role as a manager. Your time is consumed by more in-depth management or performance management rather than leading the team into providing business impact and success. To limit the extent of the negative staff morale, clear, concise and continual communication is required to keep everyone informed and on track to meet business objectives. Being transparent and open to staff, answering their questions honestly and making it safe to raise concerns as well as keeping staff motivated are all things you can implement when you feel your team is being impacted by the actions of a non-performing staff member.

This negative workplace can also impact on you personally and you may struggle to find your motivation in the business and the negativity can cause you to need more space and time to reflect on your position. It is important that you speak with your colleagues and your HR team and work together on helping your team and underperforming team members. Your HR team can support you through this time and ensure you are assisted throughout the process as needed.

The cost to the business

There is no question that an underperforming staff member has financial implications on the business. Depending on their length of service and what the role is expected to bring to the organisation, the costs could have significant impacts. According to Bersin by Deloitte, the average cost per hire is almost $4,000 USD. That number will vary, depending on job level and on hiring practices. The cost includes talent acquisition along with onboarding resources and administration and takes into consideration deferred productivity for the new employee. No matter the size of business, you need to have the right people in place and to find them it takes time and money. Depending on the role and the significance of that role in the business, the cost of terminating an employee alongside that of a rehiring process is costly as well as time-consuming. To also consider the investment in resources to onboard and train a new employee, the time needed from existing staff to manage workflow in the department whilst changes are happening, and the lack of impact the vacant role has whilst rehiring is occurring, costs can be in the tens of thousands.

Unfortunately, not everyone develops to where they need to be. Some people just don’t want to be coached and make changes. They are not willing to meet you half way and show no signs of wanting to develop and grow into the performer you need. If this is the case, then decisions will need to be made and action may need to be taken in terms of their future with your organisation. This is not a decision that should be made lightly, and significant time and deliberation may need to occur to make sure that this is the right decision for the organisation and your team. Further conversations need to occur with your team member, talking about why the coaching plan wasn’t adhered to and highlight the consequences if they can’t support their team and organisation with the clear requirements of the role.

However, if, after your coaching and support, your employee turns a corner and is now a high-performing member of your team, rewarding them for their effort is important. Employees thrive at work when they know their contributions have had an impact. Rewarding them highlights their amazing work, shows them that they are valued, and their hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Some ideas on rewards could be a surprise early finish time, a team lunch or movie afternoon or even just a personal written note, internal staff email or a shout-out at your office meeting, something you feel relevant to their contribution and they would personally appreciate.

To learn more about developing high-performing teams, download our latest white paper to grab our insights and tips to help you on your leadership journey.