Is It Really a Performance Problem? 5 Things Managers Should Consider First

An employee is missing deadlines. Their work contains more mistakes than you would expect. Tasks aren't being completed. You find yourself checking their work more often or repeatedly reminding them what needs to be done.

It looks like a performance problem.

But is it?

When something isn't going well, it's easy to focus on the outcome: this person isn't performing as expected.

The difficulty is that the same outcome can have very different causes.

Someone who doesn't understand what is expected of them is not necessarily the same as someone who lacks the skills to deliver it. Someone struggling with an unrealistic workload presents a different management issue from someone who is capable of doing the work but repeatedly chooses not to.

Before deciding how to manage poor performance, managers need to understand what they are actually dealing with.

Here are five questions worth considering.

1. Were the expectations actually clear?

Managers often know exactly what they expect from an employee.

That doesn't necessarily mean the employee does.

“Take ownership.” “Be more proactive.” “Improve your communication.” “I need you to be more organised.”

These might make perfect sense to the manager saying them, but they leave considerable room for interpretation.

What does “more proactive” actually look like? What should the employee be doing differently? How quickly should something be completed? What standard does the work need to reach?

Sometimes what appears to be poor performance is partly a gap between what the manager believes they communicated and what the employee understood.

Before concluding that somebody is failing to meet expectations, it is worth asking whether those expectations were sufficiently clear in the first place.

2. Is there a capability or knowledge gap?

There is an important difference between an employee who can't yet do something and an employee who is capable of doing it but isn't.

Perhaps they were promoted without enough training. Maybe a system or process changed. They may have inherited responsibilities that were never properly explained.

Or perhaps there is simply a genuine gap between the requirements of the role and their current capability.

That doesn't mean the performance concern should be ignored.

It means understanding the reason matters.

If someone doesn't have the knowledge or skills required to meet the expected standard, simply telling them to “improve” isn't likely to solve very much.

3. Is the workload or working environment contributing?

Sometimes we look at an individual's performance without looking at what's happening around them.

Has their workload increased?

Are they receiving conflicting priorities from different people?

Do they have the resources they need?

Are processes making relatively simple tasks unnecessarily difficult?

Has the team changed?

Are deadlines realistic?

This doesn't mean managers should automatically attribute poor performance to circumstances outside the employee's control.

It means that performance doesn't happen in a vacuum.

If several capable employees are struggling with the same target, process or workload, it may be worth looking beyond the individuals.

4. Is this actually a conduct issue?

This distinction can be particularly important.

There is a difference between someone who is struggling to achieve the required standard and someone who can meet the standard but chooses not to follow reasonable expectations or instructions.

The first may primarily be a capability or performance issue.

The second may potentially involve conduct.

In real workplaces, the distinction isn't always perfectly neat. Sometimes there will be elements of both.

But automatically labelling every problem as “poor performance” can send a manager down the wrong path.

Before deciding what action to take, understand the behaviour you're actually trying to address.

5. Has something changed?

Imagine two employees.

One has struggled to meet the required standard since joining the organisation.

The other has performed strongly for three years and their performance has suddenly deteriorated over the last six weeks.

The outcome might currently look similar.

The context is very different.

When a previously capable employee suddenly begins struggling, it is worth noticing the change rather than simply reacting to the result.

There could be many explanations, and managers shouldn't make assumptions.

But a significant change in someone's usual performance is information.

Ask questions before reaching conclusions.

Diagnose before you manage

“Poor performance” describes what you're seeing.

It doesn't necessarily explain why you're seeing it.

And that matters because the appropriate management response will depend, at least partly, on what is actually causing the problem.

If expectations aren't clear, greater clarity may be needed.

If someone lacks knowledge or capability, support or development may be relevant.

If there are wider organisational barriers, those may need attention.

If the issue is actually one of conduct, a different approach may be appropriate.

And sometimes, after considering all of those things, you will conclude that you are dealing with a genuine performance concern that needs to be addressed.

That's when another challenge begins.

How do you actually have that conversation?

From identifying the problem to managing it confidently

Knowing that you need to address poor performance and knowing how to do it well are two different things.

How do you raise the issue without making the conversation unnecessarily confrontational?

What should you say?

What questions should you ask?

How specific do your expectations need to be?

How much support and time should you provide?

What should you document?

And when does an informal performance conversation need to become something more formal?

These are exactly the practical questions we'll explore in Managing Poor Performance: A Practical Webinar for Business Owners & Managers, the first webinar in HR Insight Studio's new People Management Made Practical series.

Thursday 1 October 2026 | 6:30–7:30pm | Live online | £29 per person

The session is designed for business owners and managers rather than HR professionals. We'll focus on practical approaches you can use in real workplace situations, with live Q&A and a Performance Conversation Planner to take away and use with your own team.

People Management Made Practical will continue with live workshops exploring the everyday people challenges managers face, with practical HR guidance that can actually be applied in the workplace.

Practical HR. Better conversations. Stronger workplaces.

To attend the webinar follow this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2001158786801?aff=oddtdtcreator