How Facility Managers Can Address Poor Performance

Key Takeaways

• Managers should determine whether poor performance stems from a skills gap, lack of clarity, workplace conditions or an employee’s willingness to meet expectations.
• Clear goals, specific feedback, documentation, support and consistent follow-up can give struggling employees a meaningful opportunity to improve.
• When performance problems persist despite genuine support, or involve safety, values or toxic behavior, managers may need to consider whether the employee remains a fit for the team.

Underperformance has a number of common root causes, and each needs a different response. A poor performer gets a work order for a leaking valve, tightens a packing nut, closes the order as complete and moves on. Two weeks later, the valve fails and floods the room. The actual problem was a corroded stem they did not inspect. When asked about the problem, the poor performer says, “It wasn’t leaking when I left.” 

First, managers need to run a diagnostic: 

Skill or will? A skills gap can be remedied. A will gap is a different conversation entirely. 

Clarity. Did the worker ever actually know what good looks like? A lot of poor performance is related to undefined expectations. 

Conditions. Bad tools, unclear priorities, a broken process or no feedback can make a capable person look weak. 

The second step is to act: 

• Act early, and be specific. Avoid vague dissatisfaction that festers. 
• Set measurable goals with a timeline and support attached. A target with no help is a setup, not a plan. 
• Document, for their fairness and the manager’s. 
• Follow up on schedule. A plan a manager does not follow through on is a plan a manager does not mean. 
• Attack the problem, not the person. Separate the performance from their character. 
• Give people a real, supported chance to recover. Many do, and a recovered performer is often the most loyal person on your team. 

FacilitiesNet Recommends: A Gameplan for Performance Improvement for Facility Managers

When someone should be let go 

Managers cannot fix some situations, and dragging them out hurts the team, the operation and the poor performer. Knowing when to make the call is part of the job. Managers will know it is time when these events occur: 

Repeated failures after a real chance. Clear expectations, genuine support and enough time all have been given, and nothing has changed. 

Values or safety violations. These are non-negotiable problems, even from a skilled person. 

A toxic presence. A worker is corroding the team, regardless of individual output. 

Every day a manager keeps the wrong person, they pay for it with the morale and trust of the rest of the staff. 

Manage the person in question, not the label on them. The same individual can be a star in the right seat and a poor performer in the wrong one. A manager’s job is not to sort people into permanent categories. It is to read the situation accurately, be honest early and match the response to the situation. 

The best people will stay because they are growing, the core stays because they are seen, new hires ramp up quickly and the few who truly do not fit are handled with clarity instead of dread. 

Andrew Gager is CEO of AMG International Consulting. He is a professional consultant and facilitator with more than 20 years of experience partnering with organizations in achieving strategic objectives and goals.

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