Managing Support Plans
How effectively do you handle those who do not perform as well as they should?
I will hold my hands up here. If there is one aspect of management I wish I had used more often, it is the support plan.
Too often I would wait, often in vain, for the situation to resolve itself or hope that the same performance management process which applied to everyone else would do the trick.
When neither had an impact the support plan would begin, but often without a high prospect of success. The employee would wonder why I had taken so long to act if their performance really was such a problem. I would not have much faith that there would be a turnaround given what had been tried already.
Not an impossible situation but not an ideal one either.
As with all these processes, they tend to say more about managers than those they lead.
How to get it right?
Here’s four aspects to consider.
1. Support plans need to justify the title
The point of the support plan is to enable the member of staff to improve. Anything other than that is a contradiction in terms.
It might well be the case that the individual whose performance is under scrutiny does not get better. They could have been promoted beyond their level of ability and the monitoring process of a support plan can highlight that it was even worse than you ever thought it could have been.
That is a possibility rather than a probability. It is so important that managers are seen to enter the process of a support plan in good faith. Employees need to know a manager believes that they can get better, and that formal action is not inevitable. The starting point for transformation is often that someone has noticed there is a problem.
Managers may need to repeat this mantra more times than they consider reasonable. Much of the time others become aware of a colleague under pressure, and they also need to see that support plans are a meaningful process.
The employee’s view of their own performance might be far better than yours, and that can lead to a difficult conversation. When someone’s employment is at risk it can provoke a range of reactions and emotions, some of which can border on the unprofessional.
Managers need to anticipate what the reaction might be and not overreact. Even better if the employee has someone to accompany them to the meeting who might be able to take in what is being said more closely.
I remember one occasion when I told a member of staff that there would be a support plan. When the person who accompanied him asked after the meeting how he was, his response was that he could not believe he had been dismissed. It was not even close to what I had said, but it is what he thought had happened because being called to a meeting to talk about his performance could only mean one thing to him. The colleague who came with him was able to relay reality.
2. Clarify the gap
As a manager the least you owe your colleagues is this clarity, and that you have done your preparation before the meeting.
You should know what the issues are, the evidence which led you to this conclusion and have considered what the evidence will be which will demonstrate that progress has been made.
A support plan meeting is a classic example of where the manager needs to prepare at least as thoroughly as the employee. This shows you are genuine, and that you have not rushed to a decision.
They might have some evidence to the contrary of course. Sometimes this takes the form of ‘what about colleague/section/department A?’ It can feel like a hard message for someone to feel they are at the bottom of the heap. Not everyone is paid the same, and what might represent below expected levels of performance for one person may not be the same for others.
3. Gentle pressure, relentlessly applied
I thought for a while before using this phrase in a blog.
It does not feel like a phrase to be used in this day and age. Social media posts which describe how employees just have to be trusted to get the best out of them, or need to be left alone to get on with the job, can drive a lot of positive engagement online.
Much of it is true, and there is nothing worse than the micromanager who insists on being copied into every email or queries every gap in the diary even for those whose performance does need to be better. If you want people to improve, they need some space to do so. If you do not trust them to get from the start of one day to the next without a reputationally damaging clanger, then a support plan is likely the wrong tool.
Yet when someone has been allowed to get on with the job, had the training required, experienced a manager that has gone above and beyond for them and their performance is still not strong enough, there is a need to act.
There can be a tendency for managers to turn up the volume too loud when dealing with a problem. This might be because they are annoyed with themselves for making an appointment which has backfired, or because they have not got the training package right. Worse still is a manager using a support plan to make an example of someone because of their own mistakes.
A support plan has to be thorough enough to ensure there is sufficient pressure for it to be taken seriously, and for it to be continuous over the period of time concerned. Six working weeks is enough to see if it is being taken seriously, and if there is genuine momentum no matter how small.
A huge amount of pressure for instant and significant change is not good practice. A change in attitude, if necessary, fine, but performance can take a while.
4. Uphold your side of the deal
More often than not, when something goes wrong with a support plan the fault is with the manager.
If an employee has been promised a meeting every week, the chance to spend half a day with a more experienced colleague, or some training then that is what needs to be delivered.
Employees have their responsibilities too no doubt, and they are accountable for their own performance.
Whilst gentle pressure, relentlessly applied is the dynamic you should seek for the employee it also gives you enough space to oversee it from the other end.
There is no employee more let down than the one called to a meeting to be told there is an issue with their performance, that they will be supported through the process only to discoverthe support does not materialise.
Remember that
A support plan is not the ‘dynamite’ option for a manager, even if interpreted that way by an employee. Part of your job is to ensure it does not feel like dynamite.
Your employees with the worst performance levels, can also become the best. The end of the support plan does not have to represent the summit of your ambitions for what they can achieve.
How can I help you?
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