Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Well, hello, and welcome to my
talk on managing underperformance.
I'm Stephen Taylor, and I work
at the University of Exeter.
0:13
I've been an academic studying human
resource management, employment law,
and teaching those and associated
subjects for many, many years.
But before that, I was a practising
human resource manager officer.
I worked for several years in
the National Health Service.
And before that, in
the hotel industry,
so I've had a lot of personal experience
of handling underperformance.
And also have been involved within
the university world, as well,
in managing underperformance
of colleagues, to an extent.
0:47
This is one of the most difficult
and challenging activities
that managers of people
have to carry out.
It's hard to get it right,
and getting it wrong can
have legal consequences,
as well as negative
organisational consequences.
My plan today is to
introduce this subject,
giving a personal impression
drawing on my experience.
And also, a case study of a
situation I was involved in,
involving some poor
performance on the part
of a senior manager in an
organisation I worked for.
1:24
Well, the first thing to
say by way of introduction,
when thinking about
managing underperformance,
is that it's a very central and
time-consuming management activity.
And from a human resource management
point of view really important,
because your credibility with line
managers rests, to an extent,
on your ability to assist and advise
during difficult, challenging situations,
which managing underperformance
frequently is.
You need to do this
with confidence,
as well as competence,
and it's not easy.
It's awkward because human
emotions are involved.
It can get quite difficult
from a personal point of view,
and therefore, it takes
up a lot of time.
You have to think about
it very carefully
and think through all
the consequences.
Now, my agenda for today is to start by
defining the term "underperformance,"
which isn't that
straightforward.
There are all kinds of different ways
of defining it, thinking about it.
I then want to move on to look at how
we diagnose causes of underperformance,
which can be very varied,
before thinking about how
to address it effectively.
Then, finally, to talk
about legal expectations.
But before I do any
of those things,
I just want to start by
outlining a little case study.
