You’re Fired!

Four key reasons to fire your poor performers now The old adage is still true — it’s about quality, not quantity. If it wasn’t, then Donald Trump wouldn’t have anyone to fire at the end of The Apprentice. Keeping good employees is essential, especially with the baby-boom generation retiring en masse in a few years. Statistics show the demand for labour through to 2013 will exceed supply by 35 million jobs. The luxury of working on a “replacement basis” no longer exists, and you can’t expect to substitute one knowledge worker for another anymore. Still, you also can’t afford to keep people in your organization who just aren’t as productive as they need to be. Employee retention is important, but not at the expense of losing the people that you want to keep, and keeping the people you’d rather pink slip. Quite simply, you have to exit your poor performers now, and here are four reasons why: 1) It’s not a secret: everyone knows who the poor performers are Poor performers stand out like dandelions in a well-manicured lawn. You’re wrong to think nobody else knows who the underachievers are — everybody knows. They just can’t do anything directly about it, except wonder “When is our manager going to do something about so-and-so … ?” You have to weigh the balance of consequences — is it in your best interest to exit these individuals, or should you steer clear of the extra work and the potential fallout that might come from doing the “right” thing? Sure, it’s less stressful to stay with the status quo and not rock the boat, even though the proverbial boat is sinking under the weight of these poor performers. But if you wait until the boat actually sinks, it’s too late to start bailing. 2) Performance evaluations exist for a reason A report on employee engagement by Towers Perrin suggests nothing destroys an employee’s trust more than inconsistency — or worse, outright contradiction — between words and actions. If you don’t exit your poor performers, you’re basically saying that underachievement in the workplace is acceptable. This discourages top performers from working at their full potential; they’re not sure what you’re rewarding, but it’s definitely not productivity and results. It also says you’re incapable of critically evaluating the members of your team. As a result, you lose your credibility with your staff, and the respect of your peers as well. 3) Retaining talent is your top priority Accordingly, good performers won’t stay in a work environment that tolerates poor performers. Studies show that employees engaged with their workplace generate 22% higher productivity and 27% higher profits for their firms. However, it’s incredibly disengaging to work with individuals who aren’t pulling their weight, or with a manager who isn’t doing the same by not showing poor performers the door. How long is it, therefore, before your top performers start exiting themselves from your firm and your firm begins to suffer? The current labour market is craving talented people, so it should be fairly easy for them to find a more engaging work experience. And eventually, someone will wonder: Why are you keeping the people that no one else wants, and losing the people that everyone wants? 4) Because they really want to leave — they just don’t know how Sometimes your poor performers are employees who actually want to leave your company, but they don’t know how to exit themselves. They’re out of touch with the current labour market. Their last interview was years ago, and they may not even have a current resume. The thought of changing jobs is so overwhelming that the default command is inertia. But it’s not too late to encourage those poor performers to get back into the game. Statistics indicate that 40% of the workforce is actively looking to change jobs and 63% of mid-level managers are polishing their resumes. An engaged organization will offer career management counselling, such as resume clinics and interview skills training, so the poor performers will have the courage to show themselves out. The future is now. If you want to retain your key performers, you can’t afford poor performers on your payroll. You can’t have a reputation that suggests you tolerate mediocrity. You can’t believe top employees won’t be recruited away from your firm if you don’t provide them with positive answers to the question, “Why am I working for you?” The cost of replacing a knowledge worker can push upwards to 250 per cent of their salary, if they can be replaced at all. So, be smart and give your good employees the best reason to stay with your firm: poor performers are unwelcome, and that’s why you’re exiting them now.

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