Dealing with poor staff performance

Best ways to deal with poor staff performance

Working in childcare can be both rewarding and challenging. There may be times where a team member begins to slack and become demotivated. It is essential to identify this as often it can start to affect the team’s overall performance.

Many managers have different leadership skills and approaches in dealing with situations like these. Managers need to find the best way to deal with poor staff performance. Some managers will arrange a meeting with the practitioner and find out what is going on, this can be an ideal opportunity to conduct a supervision. Depending on your management structures, it can often be said that Room Heads deal with practitioners performance and then communicate any issues with the manager.

Conducting any form of meeting whether this is a supervisor or just an informal chat can often help find the source of the issue. Talking issues through can lead to practitioners reflecting on their performance, helping them to find ways in moving forward. It is good to listen and offer advice where needed. Self reflection is important in helping employees improve their performance levels

Here are few steps in how managers can deal with poor staff performance

• Conduct several peer to peer observations- These can help gather first hand evidence of what the practitioner is like in practice.
• Talk to the head of the room- see if there have been issues identified and whether this has been dealt with.
• Arrange a supervision- this is time to talk about the staff’s performance and self reflect. Find our why the practitioners is slacking and demonstrating poor performance. Set targets and review these.
• Refresh whole team on their job roles and responsibilities- reminding people of these can be a good overall move as often practitioners forget what is exactly expected of them.
• Arrange team building exercises- working in childcare can often be stressful, however it is important to remember to find ways to keep the staff motivated. Team building exercises can tick this box and most people enjoy a good team building exercise.