Revitalise your staff
Employee Performance Management UK
Underperforming employees can either be a case of can’t cook or won’t cook. If they can perform but won’t, you may need to go down the disciplinary route; if they can’t perform, you’re dealing with a performance management issue.
Your business can address productivity issues with expert employee performance management services. This is good business practice over choosing to dismiss a struggling member of staff, ensuring professional support guides an individual back to productivity.
Helping you with
Take back control with employee performance management services
Helping you with
Take back control with employee performance management services
Helping you with
Take back control with employee performance management services
When it comes to performance management, the onus is on you as the employer to help you members of staff improve. This means putting a plan in place, setting clear targets and providing support to help them get where they need to be. This is a large undertaking for time-poor managers.
With our fixed-fee Employment Law and HR support, you can offload this burden with help from highly-qualified professionals.
Conduct an effective and compliant process with unlimited advice from dedicated experts
Ensure a fair, consistent approach with best-practice policies, handbooks and management guidance notes
Get additional HR Consultancy support with job descriptions and performance management frameworks
Protect against claims with our optional, FCA-regulated Legal Expenses Insurance
Re-engage staff with a performance management specialist
Re-engage staff with a performance management specialist
Re-engage staff with a performance management specialist
Employee performance management is essential to meeting organisational goals effectively and efficiently. Without the competence to manage this process correctly, your workforce won’t reach its full potential and, worse, you may even end up with bigger issues such as grievances and even damaging Employment Tribunal claims. For example, if you use redundancy as a way to ‘manage out’ unwanted staff. These situations can also weigh heavily on managers, inviting difficult conversations and potential conflict.
As well as step-by-step guidance through the process, we’ll help you to gather and review evidence to prevent any suggestion that you haven’t provided clear objectives and the right support. Reduced risk, better organisational results.
Employee performance management is essential to meeting organisational goals effectively and efficiently. Without the competence to manage this process correctly, your workforce won’t reach its full potential and, worse, you may even end up with bigger issues such as grievances and even damaging Employment Tribunal claims. For example, if you use redundancy as a way to ‘manage out’ unwanted staff. These situations can also weigh heavily on managers, inviting difficult conversations and potential conflict.
As well as step-by-step guidance through the process, we’ll help you to gather and review evidence to prevent any suggestion that you haven’t provided clear objectives and the right support. Reduced risk, better organisational results.
How to manage employee performance
How to manage employee performance
How to manage employee performance
Managing employee performance effectively requires a fair, structured, and proactive approach. Start by setting clear expectations and checking in regularly to spot any issues early as prevention is always better than cure. If concerns do arise, void making assumptions. Instead, explore the root cause through open, two-way conversations. Providing constructive feedback and setting SMART goals can help keep people focused and motivated.
Remember, how you manage (including your style and tone) can have a big impact on outcomes. Getting this right can be time-consuming and complex, especially when situations become sensitive or escalate.
Many employers understandably lack confidence in dealing with performance issues. That’s where professional support can make a real difference. By working with HR or employment law experts, you’ll gain reassurance that your approach is fair, legally sound, and handled in the right way, helping you achieve better results and reduce the risk of costly mistakes.
Managing employee performance effectively requires a fair, structured, and proactive approach. Start by setting clear expectations and checking in regularly to spot any issues early as prevention is always better than cure. If concerns do arise, void making assumptions. Instead, explore the root cause through open, two-way conversations. Providing constructive feedback and setting SMART goals can help keep people focused and motivated.
Remember, how you manage (including your style and tone) can have a big impact on outcomes. Getting this right can be time-consuming and complex, especially when situations become sensitive or escalate.
Many employers understandably lack confidence in dealing with performance issues. That’s where professional support can make a real difference. By working with HR or employment law experts, you’ll gain reassurance that your approach is fair, legally sound, and handled in the right way, helping you achieve better results and reduce the risk of costly mistakes.
Why is performance management important?
It's vital for your business as it helps keep working standards high, boosts productivity, and helps employees thrive in their roles. It also helps them understand what's expected of them and provides structure for regular feedback and supports development. Done well, it helps prevent issues from escalating, reduces absence and turnover, and strengthens working relationships across the business.
From a legal perspective, you have a duty to act fairly and consistently, and failure to manage performance properly can lead to disputes or even Employment Tribunal claims. Following the correct procedures for employee disciplinary and staff grievance procedures demonstrate you’ve acted reasonably.
Our expert UK team of HR and employment law specialists know how to get the most of your staff. Contact us today for a free consultation tailored to your business needs.
Explore our fixed-fee Employment Law support
Advice Line
Fast, pragmatic, commercial. Our Employment Law & HR advice line gives you and your managers access to truly unlimited advice on all of your people-related challenges, from the seemingly straightforward to the most complex.
HR matters come with the territory when you run a business or manage an organisation and we’re here to help you through it all. Whether you’re battling absenteeism, struggling to manage an underperforming employee or need help navigating a complicated exercise like redundancy, we can walk you through the steps required to handle the situation appropriately.
Yes. All of our advisers are qualified legal professionals or on the road to formal qualification, which means a full range of employee issues can be dealt with within your dedicated three-person team. In the event that you’re presented with an Employment Tribunal claim, we will conduct a full handover to our Litigation Team so that they are well equipped to defend you.
Why choose us?
Unlock true staff potential with workforce performance management
Why choose us?
Unlock true staff potential with workforce performance management
Why choose us?
Unlock true staff potential with workforce performance management
At WorkNest, our bespoke service and the quality of our support is renowned across the UK. We work directly with your team to provide a performance plan that addresses work performance issues and a path back to productivity.
Your own small team of dedicated experts
Commercial, pragmatic advice tailored to you
Bespoke contracts, policies and handbooks
Trusted by over 35,000 organisations
Recognised as a leading firm by the Legal 500
Transparent advice on expected legal costs
Our Team
Cross-industry expertise, ready to support you
Practical support, made personal
Trusted by employers across the UK
We support over 40,000 UK employers, from small businesses with fewer than 50 employees to well-known household names with large, multi-site workforces.
Joanne Beaver
Operations Director, Beaverfit
Nick Fryer
Paymentsense - Europe largest merchant service provider, CTO
Chief Executive
Waverley Care
IT Manager
Leeds United Football Club
FAQs
Performance management is the process by which the employer and employee work together with the aim of improving the performance of employees so that they can meet their objectives. If the necessary performance improvements cannot be made, then it is possible to issue warnings and eventually dismiss an employee on grounds of poor performance.
It typically starts off informally with a manager encouraging or setting out what improvements an employee needs to make in a meeting or by email. If those informal methods are unsuccessful, the next step is usually the production of a formal performance improvement plan (PIP), which will set objectives for the employee, timescales for improvement, and the methods the employer will use to help the employee meet these goals. If an employee fails to meet a PIP, often a formal process will follow, which could result in a warning being issued.
Communication is key to any performance management process. You need to set clear, measurable objectives and timeframes to achieve those. The exact techniques beyond that will depend on the nature of the underperformance but often trying to make improvements will involve training or shadowing colleagues. It’s also important to provide full 360 feedback even outside of formal performance appraisals.
Benchmarks are often used to compare the performance of one employee against another. In practice this can sometimes be difficult, especially if the quality or quantity of work produced is difficult to measure. However, it is important to try and treat all employees equally, so a performance management process should only be used against someone who is demonstrably underperforming. Often that can only be done by comparing them to their colleagues in similar roles.
This can vary from business to business but it’s important that any performance management process sets SMART objectives. Those that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Around your SMART objectives, you can build a performance improvement plan which will set out the objectives and when they need to be achieved by. The PIP will also detail the support the employer will give to the employee to help them meet their objectives, as well as the potential consequences for not doing so. Most Employee Handbooks will also set out a performance management procedure for dealing with issues like this.
By being brave and tackling the issues, setting SMART objectives that are monitored by the use of a PIP and, if all that fails, using a formal process to issue warnings for poor performance.
There are several benefits of performance management. It can highlight the need for training and help you to better understand the skills of your employees. It helps with your workforce planning and, in particular, can help you to spot talent. It can also boost morale and, in turn, increase employee retention.
Performance management is the process by which the employer and employee work together with the aim of improving the performance of employees so that they can meet their objectives. If the necessary performance improvements cannot be made, then it is possible to issue warnings and eventually dismiss an employee on grounds of poor performance.
Communication is key to any performance management process. You need to set clear, measurable objectives and timeframes to achieve those. The exact techniques beyond that will depend on the nature of the underperformance but often trying to make improvements will involve training or shadowing colleagues. It’s also important to provide full 360 feedback even outside of formal performance appraisals.
This can vary from business to business but it’s important that any performance management process sets SMART objectives. Those that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Around your SMART objectives, you can build a performance improvement plan which will set out the objectives and when they need to be achieved by. The PIP will also detail the support the employer will give to the employee to help them meet their objectives, as well as the potential consequences for not doing so. Most Employee Handbooks will also set out a performance management procedure for dealing with issues like this.
There are several benefits of performance management. It can highlight the need for training and help you to better understand the skills of your employees. It helps with your workforce planning and, in particular, can help you to spot talent. It can also boost morale and, in turn, increase employee retention.
It typically starts off informally with a manager encouraging or setting out what improvements an employee needs to make in a meeting or by email. If those informal methods are unsuccessful, the next step is usually the production of a formal performance improvement plan (PIP), which will set objectives for the employee, timescales for improvement, and the methods the employer will use to help the employee meet these goals. If an employee fails to meet a PIP, often a formal process will follow, which could result in a warning being issued.
Benchmarks are often used to compare the performance of one employee against another. In practice this can sometimes be difficult, especially if the quality or quantity of work produced is difficult to measure. However, it is important to try and treat all employees equally, so a performance management process should only be used against someone who is demonstrably underperforming. Often that can only be done by comparing them to their colleagues in similar roles.
By being brave and tackling the issues, setting SMART objectives that are monitored by the use of a PIP and, if all that fails, using a formal process to issue warnings for poor performance.
