Between the employees who do a great job and those who do a flat-out lousy job are those who do a kind of middling, could-do-better job.

In “The Big Book of HR” authors Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem address the issue of employees who aren’t quite hitting the mark. Employees have a responsibility to meet performance expectations, but they maintain that any manager analyzing sub-par performance should ask the following questions:

• Were work assignments clear?
• Was I available when I was needed to be available?
• What did he employee need from me to do this assignment successfully?
• Did the employee have the resources necessary to complete the assignment?
• Was the employee properly trained to do the assignment?
• Did the employee’s ability to perform depend on contributions from other employees, departments or vendors?
• Was the customer/client expectation reasonable under the circumstances?
• Were there extenuating circumstances that are not readily apparent that affected the employee’s ability to meet the performance expectation?
• What are the specific facts of this performance issue?
• Did I establish a workable process for keeping track of the employee’s progress on this assignment? Did I support the process by being available and supportive when the employee needed help or input?
• How has eh organization addressed similar performance issues with other employees in the past?
• Am I approaching this situation with a goal of creating an opportunity for this employee to be successful in the future?