The ‘surefire’ thing that will make talented staff quit

So you’ve made a fantastic new hire, they’re excited to start, and before long they’re kicking some major goals.

But then poof – they’re gone.

There are a few things that could have gone wrong: poor communication, a bad culture fit or they just found a better job.

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But, according to the co-founder of HR consulting firm deliberatepractice, Greg Smith, there’s one thing above all others that “really cheeses off” star performers.

“The sure fire way to lose your talent is tolerating poor performance in others,” he told Yahoo Finance.

“There's nothing more demotivating for a really talented person to see the poor performance of someone else been tolerated.

“It's up to leaders to be able to deal with that effectively. But it's a big one that really, really cheeses talented people off.”

He said this situation can come about when leaders are “over-zealous” in the hiring process and don’t hire correctly.

“It’s not that leaders mean to do it, but they get excited. They see someone who they’d really like to get on board and the temptation is there just to gild the lily [about the realities of the job].”

Total workplace productivity compromised by one underperformer

The Fair Work Ombudsman has the same warning.

In its guidelines around how to manage underperforming workers, it warns that employees who perform well can “lose motivation if they have to carry the burden of poor performing colleagues”.

Additionally, “ineffective performance management can dramatically reduce the level of performance in a workplace.”

It suggested employers discuss performance with underperforming employees once the issue has been identified. The next step is to devise a plan with the worker to overcome any workplace challenges contributing to the underperformance.

“Employers who work at best practice benefit from motivated staff that are performing at their best,” the Ombudsman said.

“These employers also understand that when issues concerning underperformance are not addressed and managed both appropriately and sensitively, it can lead to unhealthy and unproductive outcomes that may affect the entire workplace.”

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