Does this resonate with you? Singapore business leaders are devoting 13.8% of their time to coaching and/or supervising poorly performing employees, according to a survey by Robert Half.
The company said that 96% of Singapore business leaders face the challenge of poorly performing employees, which can impact a company’s productivity levels, staff morale and even reputation.
Highlights of survey results
- Only 4% of Singapore business leaders say they do not have poorly performing employees
- Singaporean employers are most likely to use coaching or mentoring strategies to manage poorly performing employees (58%)
- Singaporean employees are least likely to deal with underperforming employees by letting them go (22%)
What are Singapore bosses doing to manage underperforming employees?
To help poorly performing employees meet expectations, the majority (58%) of Singaporean employers use coaching or mentoring strategies, according to survey results.
Half (50%) of Singaporean employers would transfer an underperforming employee to another role and 47% would offer further training, Robert Half noted..
“Identifying the areas where employees are not meeting expectations and implementing appropriate measures early are key to minimising the costs of underperformance,” said Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard, Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore.
Efficiency and responsiveness around managing poorly performing employees will reduce financial and non-financial costs to businesses while managers and leaders won’t spend as much of their valuable time on protracted training and supervision processes, he added.
Impact of underperforming employees on Singaporean businesses
From a financial perspective, the cost of underperformance could include an employee’s salary that does not reflect expected output, paid time for mentoring and supervision, additional training costs, lost revenue from missed business opportunities, costs linked to letting an employee go, and the ultimate costs of rehiring, Robert Half pointed out.
Underperformance among employees can also bring a series of non-financial costs to businesses, such as a negative impact on the corporate culture and staff morale, and damage to company reputation, the company added.
The impacts of underperformance can also spread beyond an individual employee and their own role—placing a great deal of pressure on managers and colleagues who may shoulder an additional workload and accompanying pressure to compensate for the underperforming employee.
Termination: a last resort
Despite the issue, Robert Half said staff retention is a high priority of Singaporean businesses which face a skills-short market
This priority is also reflected in survey results, with only 22% of respondents indicating that they would let underperforming employees go—the least popular response to the issue.
“While the idea of letting an employee go might be what first comes to mind, Singaporean business leaders understand the high costs of vacant roles and repeating hiring processes,” Imbert-Bouchard said. “Offering additional support, spending more time on the onboarding process or assigning alternative roles are usually more viable options that are considered first.”
