Coaching for success is a term that is becoming popular throughout the managerial workforce. It is used for bringing lower productive employees up in performance, and to bring the top producing employees into excelling at what they do. It is a hidden way of treating everyone equally while targeting the weaknesses that people have. If weaknesses are not improved upon, a performance improvement action plan is put into place. These performance improvement action plans are also used to move negative behaviors into positive ones.
It normally takes about 20 days to change a person’s behavior. Managers are keying into this daily as the word spreads like wildfire. To legally change a negative behavior (attitudes, subordination, etc), performance improvement action plans are implemented to target specific key areas to improve. These plans are implemented for 30-60 days based on the discretion of the manager.
An example of changing a behavior would be “leaving personal issues at home”. An action plan can be implemented by targeting areas such as customer service skills (i.e. smiling and being attentive). If any negative customer comments are being received based on this employee, then you target this into the issue, which happens to be “leaving personal issues at home”.
If there is an employee who is in sales and not meeting targets, then an action plan can easily be implemented as well. Using the data that shows evidence of the employee not meeting targets, implement it into an action plan. Use basic ideas on how to grow the business (i.e. do follow up phone calls to customers on a weekly basis, visit local businesses to give sales pitch to, etc.).
The importance in making this performance improvement action plan work is for the manager to do a follow up on a weekly basis. This can be a simple 5 minute meeting to discuss the employee’s progress. A simple initial from both parties will create the documentation. If the employee does not improve in the areas, a written warning is justified. When issuing a written warning, ensure that the current action plan is extended. Eventually, the employee will either get on board, or they will find that they are not the right fit for the position, and may find themselves terminated from employment. In order for a business to consistently grow in production, it is important that the employees are the right fit for the job. For more information, feel free to visit www.hr.yourinterviewing.com