Managers not managing underperformance

According to research by Watson Wyatt Managers need to do more to help poorer performing staff.

"Managers find it easy to motivate high performing indviduals but are not so adept when it comes to supporting poorer performing employees" says Carol Hathaway of Watson Wyatt.

"Some of the greatest opportunities for improved organisational performance lie in helping Managers raise the bar for moderate and poorer performers but it appears from our study that few employers are doing this".

In it's 2007/2008 Global Strategic rewards study Watson Wyatt found that only a third of poor performers said their Manager does a good job in commuicating expectations for organisational financial performance, of establishing goals for their individual performance linked back to business objectives or of providing direct feedback on their personnal performance.

However, a top performer was 66% more likely to say that their immediate Supervisor does a good job of communicating organisational and performance management issues than a poor performer would, the survey found.