Performance Anxiety: Getting the Most Out of Your Employees

Gentle reader:

Kind, well-intentioned managers faced with performance problems among their earnest subordinates often respond by arranging training programs to re-educate employees and fix whatever ills have befallen their companies. In many cases, however, training is not the solution, and forcing employees to endure it is to everyone’s disadvantage and displeasure. The quiz on this page will give you some idea of when training is called for and when it is not.

When training is appropriate, it can be much more bearable and even more effective if it is presented with humor and style, as writer David Olmos explains on Page 9. Take the accompanying quiz and find out whether your training programs are suitably silly.

Ms. Work Wise

Readers of the Careers section first met Ms. Work Wise last November when the etiquette-savvy fictional character created by our readers joined real-life columnist Judith Martin (a.k.a. “Miss Manners”) to address problems related to rudeness in the workplace. Ms. Work Wise returns in this issue to introduce stories on different types of training and will continue to appear as a voice in careers.

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Sales are down, production is behind schedule, customer service is backlogged, and will somebody please answer the phone?

Granted, many things about the business have changed in the last few years, but the staff isn’t performing as well as it should.

So what’s the answer? Training, of course.

Maybe.

Before committing to a training program, it’s crucial to analyze what is and isn’t happening.

There are at least 10 reasons why people don’t perform, according to Carolyn Hohne, president of Hohne Consulting in Mount Holly, N.J., and often more than one of them is at play.

Remember, training deals only with what an employee knows how to do. It doesn’t correct behavior, alter work flow, give feedback, set goals, outline expectations or instill confidence.

That last one shouldn’t be underestimated.

“In order for people to perform, they have to have not only competence, they need confidence,” says Hohne, who consults on training and performance issues for large corporate clients.

Naturally, as a manager you need to determine what the problems are. To see how adept you are, take this test:

1. The receptionist often doesn’t answer the phone until the fifth or sixth ring. When asked why, he says he can’t hear the phone when he’s at the copy machine, which is down the hall. You should:

a) Install one of those really loud phones like they have at gas stations.

b) Allow the receptionist to make copies only during nonbusiness hours.

c) Put a 60-foot extension cord on the phone so it reaches the copy machine.

d) Move the copy machine close to the receptionist’s desk.

2. Every salesperson is supposed to file a monthly report of what products were sold and what customers anticipate ordering. The production manager says she gets few of the reports on time and many of them two weeks late. When she brings this up, you:

a) Shrug and say, “If I reprimand them, sales might go down.”

b) Shrug and say, “Just do the best with the on-time reports.”

c) Shrug and say, “I’m sure you can make the right decisions about ordering materials without somebody else’s guess.”

d) Find out who the offenders are and discuss the problem with them individually.

3. Your production manager complains that it takes the shop manager too long to shift manufacturing from product A to product B because each line manager must fill out a form listing inventory levels for parts and completed units. That form then needs to be signed by the shop manager, production manager and inventory control accountant. You can’t afford to lose production time, so you:

a) Tell the production manager that the forms will just have to be filled out faster.

b) Schedule a training session with the line managers on how to most efficiently handle this important paperwork.

c) Reprimand the shop manager for not keeping everything humming in production.

d) Redesign the system for production changeovers so that the paperwork requirement doesn’t stop manufacturing.

4. Every quarter when you close the books, an accountant, two bookkeepers, your secretary and you stay late to complete the work. Part of the process is to have the bookkeepers exchange spreadsheet files over the network, something they normally don’t do. Every quarter you have to call your tech person out of bed to walk them through it. Next quarter, she’s going to be on maternity leave, so you should:

a) Have her work that night while an ambulance stands by.

b) Have her retrain the bookkeepers for the 15th time in hopes they’ll remember how to do it in 12 weeks.

c) Do that quarter’s statements with paper, pencil and adding machine.

d) Have the tech person write up step-by-step file transfer instructions that will walk the bookkeepers through it every quarter.

5. It’s annual review time and you’ve got a serious quandary: The shipping manager is under the accounting department, whose manager reviews his performance and makes pay recommendations. But his day-to-day work is overseen by customer service. Accounting is happy with his efforts to keep shipping costs down, but customer service says too many sales are lost when replacements are sent the cheap way instead of the fast way. To resolve this you:

a) Give the shipping manager a review that’s half positive and half negative, halve the pay increase recommended by accounting and keep the system as is.

b) Have customer service and accounting work out a system in which you referee all their disagreements over shipping methods.

c) Tell the shipping manager to flip a coin to decide what gets shipped the fast way.

d) Reorganize the hierarchy so that the shipping manager answers to customer service, which ultimately answers to accounting about when packages need to be shipped the fast way.

6. Payroll is at odds with department heads because time cards are often filled out incorrectly. The payroll staff says it constantly has to send cards back for correction and tell managers about the same 12 mistakes over and over. Payroll says it would love to have a simpler system, but with three shifts, weekend work and even some holiday production, it’s complicated. Your response is to:

a) Tell the managers they simply have to get it right.

b) Tell payroll that they shouldn’t be so picky; after all, what are the chances the IRS will review your records?

c) Ignore the problem because eventually payroll will learn to live with this.

d) Instruct payroll to create documentation, especially for special circumstances.

7. Your office manager has always filed concise and complete monthly reports, but the last six have fallen short. When you tell her you really liked the old ones, she says if she’d known that, she would have kept up the effort. You should:

a) Send her to report-writing school.

b) Reprimand her for not knowing what you like.

c) Reprimand her for not knowing what you don’t like.

d) Make an effort to give timely feedback, positive and negative.

8. Expansion of your business requires a new accounting method. The accountant is happy, but your bookkeepers protest that they’ve never used it. You should:

a) Fire them.

b) Cut their pay.

c) Tell them they should be able to pick it up in their spare time.

d) Arrange to have them trained in the new method.

9. The head of your technical support department does a great job of keeping the company’s computer up and running. Her reward for this stellar work should be:

a) Nothing extra.

b) More responsibilities.

c) A booklet of discount coupons to local fast-food joints.

d) Giving her a bonus, citing her as an example to others and getting her some assistance.

10. One of your partners has a heart attack during a staff meeting. The shipping clerk and the marketing director team up to perform CPR, saving his life. In response:

a) You stick to the meeting agenda to keep things as normal as possible.

b) You adjourn the meeting and go home thankful that your business partner isn’t dead.

c) You turn to your secretary and say, “Wow! That was close.”

d) You adjourn the meeting until the next day, when you hold a lunch in honor of the heroes.

11. During your partner’s convalescence, you’re overwhelmed by his staff’s requests for answers or approval of actions. Your partner says this is really odd because they’ve always been so self-directed. You should:

a) Continue to shoulder the onslaught of inquiries.

b) Have them call him at home every day.

c) Tell them to hold off on anything really important until your partner returns.

d) Tell his staff that unless you need to mediate or approve a large purchase, they should carry on as they did before his heart attack.

12. Your policy of having your partner’s subordinates manage themselves is working splendidly, but other departments haven’t picked up on this new innovation. They say it was never mentioned to them. You should:

a) Fake a heart attack in hopes they’ll get the point.

b) Tell them that if you have to continue thinking for them, you’ll have to cut their pay.

c) Give each of them a nickel and have them base decisions on best two flips out of three.

d) Develop guidelines from your experience with your partner’s departments and spell out your expectations to the other departments.

OK, pencils down. The correct answer to all of these is d. But you knew that, right?

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The 10 Reasons Why People Don’t Perform

1. They don’t know how.

2. They don’t know what’s expected of them.

3. They’re not allowed to make decisions.

4. They don’t get feedback.

5. There is bad or nonexistent documentation necessary to carry out a task.

6. No step-by-step instructions for infrequently performed tasks.

7. Workplace has obstacles.

8. Organizational structure interferes.

9. They’re punished or ignored when they do it right.

10. They’re rewarded when they do it wrong.