10 Practical Strategies to Help You Deal with Unreliable Employees

You know the kind of team member we’re talking about.  The one who never meets deadlines for team projects, has inconsistent standards to their work, is always running late to work, calling in absent and generally just letting the team down. 

As leaders and managers, we often tolerate this type of behaviour.  Why?  Initially, we are being empathic and compassionate and excuse their missed deadlines and absences, because they’ve been in hospital or caring for a loved one.  We tolerate their behaviour because when they’re on their game, they are good employees.  

But when their unreliability starts becoming a consistent pattern of behaviour.  You’ve got a problem.

An unreliable team member can have a massive effect on their direct team and organisation.  Their unrelatability can cause:

• frustration with their team members, because they are picking up the slack.
• loss of productivity to the organisation, including higher costs due to replacement workers (such as paying someone overtime, to cover missed shifts).
• an increase team stress and a drain on energy levels.
• poor quality of service from your organisation.

Now, there’s a big difference between the occasional emergency or personal issue and consistent patterns of disruption, absenteeism and poor standards of work.  

So what to do when you’ve identified a team member is becoming unreliable?

10 strategies to help you deal with unreliable employees

Here are some strategies to work through with the individual:

1. Don’t delay the difficult conversation.  You need to take swift action to raise the issues.
2. I recommend entering any conversation with the expectation of a positive outcome.  In this situation, it has been my experience that most employees actually do want to do a good job, and are likely to know they are letting the team down.
3. Discuss the patterns of unreliability and impact on the team and organisation.
4. Take an empathy based approach.  This means showing respect to the individual, and trying to understand the issues and reasons why the employee is absent or not performing to the standard expected. This could be for a range of reasons including:
   • Personal issues – such as illness,  family or care responsibilities, or alcoholism.
   • Job related – are they being bullied or harassed at work, are they stressed, are they underperforming due to not having the skills required.
   • Are they job hunting, and not attending work, as they have interviews?
5. Once issues are identified, jointly discuss solutions and implement a personal action or improvement plan.  Solutions may include flexible start and stop times to manage care arrangements.  A personal action plan or improvement plan confirms expectations of both parties, and how matters will be managed moving forward.
6. Monitor the situation, review to make sure it’s working and enforce actions and consequences if the agreement is not being upheld.  If you do not take action, for a staff member’s lack of action and effort it will undermine your authority with not just the unreliable individual but your entire team. 
7. Lead by example.  Make sure you are personally meeting any of the expectations you set for your team.
8. Keep good records in case the worst outcome is termination.

You may also want to consider some strategies for absenteeism at an organisational level.  These may include:

9. Developing wellbeing initiatives in the workplace. Including employee assistance or wellness programs that focus on supporting both physical and mental health.  
10. Ensuring the organisation has well documented policies and procedures relating to absences, including who should be notified of absences and the process to follow.  

Conclusion

It can be very difficult and stressful managing an unreliable employee.  However, using these strategies above will help you overcome the challenge and build a productive and engaged team.