Managers are regularly challenged with underperforming employees. They consider these employees to be unmotivated who are not spending the appropriate amount of time and energy. In most of the cases these employees work hard but underperform as they are not aligned to corporate objectives and role they play in achieving those objectives. It is manager’s fault to not introduce, guide and evaluate employees through the corporate objectives and aligned goals. Employees are explained their responsibilities without explanation on how these will contribute to grand scheme of things. They are rarely assigned goals and if they are then they are not aligned or tracked. Finally these goals change all of a sudden without any explanation of the change and how this will contribute to the overall development of the employee.
All this chaos can be solved by structured and meaningful communication. Here is where 12-4-1 steps in. 12-4-1 is a structured set of meetings that provide following basis for meaningful conversation:
12 monthly meetings to track employee progress through assign goals. Here an employee provide a self-review to manager for each of the assigned goals. Instead of babbling out a bunch of unrelated stuff to prove that he/she was busy working, they can have a more meaningful conversation and the manager can assess if the progress is in right direction and at a right pace.
4 quarterly meetings to assess current and future goals. Here the manager review current goals with employee and reiterate how these goals still contribute to the organization initiatives. Managers can also provide updates on the overall initiatives itself. Manager and employee can review if some of the goals still make sense and if not then they should be removed and new ones can be added so that employee is well aligned to company vision.
1 yearly evaluation where employee performance is evaluated. Previous meetings to track and review should ensure that the employee was well aware of what the organization required from him and now it is up to his potential to make it happen.
If managers following 12-4-1 then performance review conversation will be smooth, development items can be easily identified and employees will not be demotivated as they are now directed and mentored.
