Hot topic: August 2008

Underperforming employees can be a nightmare for the company. Lee Xieli finds out from senior HR practitioners how they can intervene before it gets too late.

■ Michael Vavakis

Vice president of human resources, global operations

HP Asia-Pacific and Japan

HP has always looked for a performance-based culture and that has helped us become the most successful IT company in the world. We have a very rigorous and disciplined performance management approach around how we manage employee performance at work. Performance management is a year-round process. It benefits the organisation by aligning employee objectives to business objectives. It benefits employees by having clear and specific goals. And it benefits managers by providing a consistent, repeatable process for tracking performance.

Open and frequent communication is the key for improving performance. Having specific goals and regular meetings to discuss progress towards those goals will enable an underperforming employee to demonstrate improvement over time. We have a very systematic approach in place to help managers coach and mentor underperforming employees. This includes a process whereby performance issues are identified, contributing factors are diagnosed, and behaviour patterns are identified before a coaching process is prescribed. There are also resources and tools available online to help both parties manage the process. We ensure that all our HR actions to manage low performance are also consistent and compliant with local legal and labour requirements.

■ Lim Geok Hong

HR manager

Cathay Pacific Airways

We have an open appraisal system at Cathay Pacific Singapore, which is conducted at least twice a year – mid and end of the year. However, there is usually an ongoing review for the employees, even on a daily basis. If there are some issues, the head of departments (HODs) or employees’ immediate supervisor will talk to the staff involved and counsel them. Cathay Pacific is always looking at the continuous development of its employees at all levels.

In some cases, we would also sit and discuss with the union on how the union can help the employee before we make the tough decision. We would try to fit the staff into the company according to their competency. For example, the employee may not perform well in his or her current position but is excellent in providing customer service at the airport or in the call centre so we will try to fit them there. We will provide the necessary training and if the employee really can’t fit into our system [even after we tried], then we will have to part company.

It also depends on how serious the situation is. For example, if someone breaches the security, it will be head office’s call and it is beyond our control. However, with our assessment centre, we do get good calibre of people to join us so such occurrences are rare.

■ Linda F. Gu

Manager of HR and administration team

Cheil Worldwide China

A particular staff member who might exhibit underperforming working behaviour should be assessed, and all efforts should be made to trace the reasons why the staff is not performing to his or her fullest capabilities.

One reason for underperformance is when a talent is not placed in the proper position to be stimulated and to realise his or her full potential, which can lead to a lack of motivation.

For a solution, we need to carefully consider the proper and correct methods to improve or motivate our staff member to best fit within the company environment. We can do this by offering certain training or specific instructions. If it is due to the personal attitude reasons, we should let the staff member know the results of his or her underperformance and provide guidance.

Before we have to let the staff member go, Cheil will give one more chance or provide more training opportunities for them. If they still fail to change, we will make the final decision immediately according to the relative labour laws.