| by John Ryan,
Eastern Iowa SBDC, Davenport, IA "Why, oh why", we often ask ourselves, "don't our employees do what we owners want them to do?" There are really only three reasons why our employees do not perform as we want them to. Those basic reasons and some quick pointers on how to deal with them follow.  Reason #1
The employee does not know how to correctly do what is expected or required. So let's ask: Is more training necessary or required? Did we hire an appropriately qualified person to begin with? Has the job changed and therefore the skills necessary to perform it? Does the employee hide lack of knowledge or skills?
Reason #2
The employee cannot perform because something, or someone, gets in the way. Why? Does the employee have appropriate equipment, materials, and processes? Are team members or individual suppliers not pulling their weight? Are supervisors creating confusion, overmanagement, or giving conflicting directions? Is there simply too little time, too little support, too little room, and too little equipment? Reason #3
The employee does not perform well because he or she does not want to! Whoops—the most difficult problem of all. Again, the best beginning is to ask these questions: Is there something at the work place which is creating this attitude? Or something outside of the work place? Does this employee really understand what attitude they are displaying? Is the poor attitude a result of one of the first two reasons we have examined? Whatever the reason, or reasons, we need to put a stop to this problem and return the employee to a productive situation. Or, at worst but certainly an acceptable alternative, is it time to fire that person? The next column in this series examines a six-step methodhoteles Milán to intervene and deal successfully with problem employee situations. For more information on employee issues, luxury hotels in Spacontact a consultant at a Small Business Development Center. > See also: Human Resources & Personnel | 
