Identifying the Root Cause of Performance Issues

When an employee is not meeting your performance expectations, you need to understand the root cause before you take any action. As a multifamily leader, you wear many hats; to get to the bottom of this, you will have to put on your doctor hat.

Before doctors give a diagnosis, what do they look at? In most situations, they will review:

• Your vitals and history

• Complete a physical examination

• Discuss the situation with you

We need to perform these tasks with our employees to ensure we truly understand the root cause of the low performance. Too often, we start to treat the symptoms of the issue – the employee isn’t meeting our productivity goals so we just address that. The low productivity is only a symptom of the issue, not the root cause.

So, we need to put on our doctor hat and analyze the situation.

Review Performance Statistics

Numbers don’t lie. You will get an objective insight into the situation by looking at the employee’s performance statistics. Look at their current and previous performance and answer these questions:

• Have they ever met your performance expectations?

• Have they been improving over time?

• Is this a consistent issue?

Also analyze the employee’s performance in other areas. Identify if the issue is isolated to one metric or if it involves other areas. You’ll want to look at these performance statistics over time as well.

Observe the Task

See the employee perform the task. Whether by shadowing the employee or reviewing a recording of the task, make sure you can see the task from start to finish. Answer these questions:

• Are there any obstacles for the employee?

• How does the employee feel about the task?

• Which areas are a struggle for the employee?

Take some time to also observe an employee who is performing the task to expectations. This will help you identify obstacles and struggles for the under-performing employee.

Discuss the Situation

Get the employee’s feedback. We need to analyze the situation first – often, an employee is too close to the situation to have an objective perspective so we need to bring that to the conversation for them. It would be a mistake to think we could diagnose the root of the problem without the employee’s input. The employee’s feedback will not only make the employee feel part of the solution, but they may have insights we didn’t discover during our analysis. Ensure the employee knows you’re here to help and shape your conversation like this:

• Tell me about the task.

• What challenges do you have completing the task?

• What would help overcome those challenges?

• What do you need from me?

With this information, you’ll be able to identify the root cause of the issue and take the appropriate steps to help the employee overcome the obstacles and improve performance.