Employment is a reciprocal relationship, reliant on the employee’s consistent satisfactory performance, a positive work environment, and an appealing compensation package, among other factors. Discipline is crucial for both employer and employee alike. Performance, within the employee’s sphere of influence to some extent, is influenced by both parties, but how exactly? Is there a method for enhancing employee performance? Most importantly, can an employee be terminated solely due to underperformance? This article aims to address these questions and more. Read on to gain deeper insights!
Definition
Employee performance is the measure of how efficiently an employee executes their duties and responsibilities. This measure is normally linked to some criteria agreed upon at conception and normally included in the contract of employment. Section 2 of the Employment Act defines a contract of employment as “an agreement, whether oral or in writing, expressed or implied, whereby one person agrees for a wage or other benefit or both to let his labour to and to perform it under the orders of another person who agrees to hire it”. It is evident from the previous definition that a contract of employment can be both written and verbal therefore, it is important that employers become mindful of this especially where performance targets are concerned. An employee’s performance is affected by different factors namely: the availability of required resources to perform the agreed duties, the presence of required skills and technical knowledge as well as the employee’s willingness to learn in order to correct and the employer’s willingness to train, teach, coach, mentor in order to rectify. This paragraph addresses the first question i.e., how each party (employee and employer) contributes towards performance.
Performance improvement
As with any other relationship, ideally if one of the parties is struggling with maintaining their end of the bargain, there is a need to assist them to do so before completely giving up on them. The same would apply to an employment relationship. If an employee is struggling to meet performance standards, it becomes the employer’s responsibility to devise ways of helping the employee meet the said standards. Some of the common techniques include providing feedback, coaching, mentoring, training, improving rewards systems, etc. In isolation the previously mentioned techniques may not work, at times pairing them up does the trick for example: providing feedback and coaching. This addresses the second question which aims to establish whether an employee’s performance can be improved.
The limitations
Now, once an employee’s performance is considered to be persistently unsatisfactory, then employers would want to part ways with them. It is imperative to take note that there is a checkbox to check out before an employee can be dismissed for bad performance. Firstly, there must be a trace that certain performance improvement techniques were implemented to try and assist the employee to improve their performance. This is upon realising that their performance is below average. Secondly, according to section 26(4j) of the Employment Act, this would be considered serious misconduct provided there is “consistent work performance below average despite at least two written warnings”. Finally, despite having all the evidence under the sun that the concerned employee is underperforming, a disciplinary hearing is still necessary to confirm this before a dismissal. Failure to follow the above could lead to the dismissal being deemed unfair or unlawful.
Contacts
If you want to join our free HR WhatsApp group or to consult, contact us on +267 75 54 67 84, +267 393 9435 or info@aupracontax.co.bw.
