Most People at Work Under-Perform! How Come? And, What to Do About It.

We at The London Perret Roche Group have the point of view that almost everyone at work underperforms – almost everyone!

Many executives have their own perspectives about how come, and their own ways of dealing with under-performers.

In a recent article, Life at the Bottom: How to Handle Underperformers the author quotes the often cited example of Jack Welch's practice when CEO of GE: "Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, implemented a strategy of annually eliminating the bottom 10% of his company’s employees. This effective strategy is one of the keys to GE’s long-term success."

When 3M CEO George Buckley was asked in a recent interview, "Jack Welch recommended firing the bottom 10%. Do you agree?" He answered, "I think the concept is right, but it's a little dehumanizing." However he went on to say, "When you have identifiable poor performers, it's in the best interest of the organization for them not to work there." Bottom line: dehumanizing or not they have got to go.

Few executives would argue that poor performers, after all the training and development efforts have failed to produce a transformation in performance need to be let go.

However, don't stop there. That is dealing with the effects of a problem not the source of the problem. I recommend as part of the after action review that hiring, and the initial training induction procedures, be re-assessed to discover whether new employees are going to be performers. Far too many potential under-performers get hired because of missing or inadequate initial screening. Hiring manager take note.

New employees are often dropped into their new jobs with no support, no coaching or mentoring, insufficient feedback from supervisions, insufficient clarity about what it takes to excel, insufficient acknowledgement and appreciation, and most of all insufficient excitement and enthusiasm for the mission, vision and values of the organization - if they even have discovered from leaders what it actually is. So under-performance is an indictment of leadership as much as it is a failing of an individual contributor.

It would be worth taking a leaf out of Zappo's play book and learn Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit--And You Should Too as one place to start introspection about your own role in being the cause of your peoples' under-performance.