How do you deal with an employee who doesn't honor his/her own commitment often? If you have faced a similar situation before, share your success story dealing with such an employee.
Hi Ingrid, it's more related to ownership and accountability. The employee made a commitment by himself/herself that a task would be finished by X date. Past the X date, the task was still not done and no proactive update was given to explain. Despite being reminded a few times, this continues to happen often.
I'd like to gather some ideas how we can approach this kind of behavior more effectively.
Hi Henry, all clear. The manager of the employee, with support from HR, has to prepare the meeting to go through the facts and observations. The employee has to be given the chance to explain what happened (maybe something privately has been distracting him...) The outcome of the meeting is being documented and a realistic timeline is given to improve, this can be done through a performance development plan that both manager and employees put together and that will be followed up with weekly or bi-weekly meetings where updates and progress are reported. If there is no progress made, the manager has to decide to either exit or consider to put the person in another role and give him a 2nd chance, providing the person has been showing the willingness to change and is demonstrating the right behaviors. Else it is an exit.... Does this help?
Helping, to teach, coach, set targets, and trend. Will see in 18 months if it works.
Accountability is important to the team's progress.
What works best from my experience is to indicate the designated person's name for the team's task and report contribution status as it is throughout the process timeline.
That way everyone sees it as it is. It's fair, transparent, direct, and straightforward.
And, a few more ways to encourage productive team members to collaborate with one another, depends on the team culture too.
After a while, the issue most likely will work out on its own, some will pick up their share or some will come forward that they can no longer support the roles.
Hope that helps.
I would add that (if you have not done so already) that you need to have a common understanding meeting as to why this is a repetitive issue and probe as to what barriers he or she is facing that prevents them from following through. Restate your own expectations.
I also would suggest pairing this individual with another peer who can perhaps coach them. In my own experiences, sometimes gains can be made through leveraging peer relationships to bring people along, rather than the boss to direct report dynamic.
In either case, there too should be stated consequences for ongoing bad behavior and habits.
Lastly, I would recommend that the employee be involved in developing their own corrective action plan. This ensure buy in by them which can improve accountability.