To complain about an employee's productivity after so long

[stuckinarutatwork]

I've employed someone for nearly 7 years.
Over the last year, my employee has been furloughed for periods due to our work decreasing in lockdown. During these periods, I've carried out the work usually done by this staff member, as my own usual workload has also been reduced. In doing so, it's become very apparent that this employee is somewhat slow in their work; I'm typically achieving in 2-3 hours what normally takes them a full day's work.
This is not a role that I've worked before this year and so I had no real expectation of productivity and was always happy with their work (they joined us when we first opened the business so it was very new to all of us).
However, I'm now realising that they really need to work faster and that I'm paying more than twice the wage I need to in order to get the work done, but am finding this very hard to address given that they've been doing the job for so long and until recently, I've had no complaints. I must say that they're exceptionally reliable with mistakes being very few (not that I've made any either by working at a faster pace). I think they'd be mighty offended if I raised concerns about their work given that until a year ago, I'd never done their job and they've been doing it for 7 years.
So, AIBU to bring this up when they return to work or should I just accept it as I should've realised earlier that they work slowly?

Is there a third person you could teach the job to? That way you could garner an accurate assessment of where a reasonable benchmark should be set. That will also give you some flexibility in terms of staff cover if the first employee is absent/sick. I think if you don’t address this it will drive you mad, but in order to address it you probably need to shake up the business a bit. Good luck!

Does anyone else do the same job? How do they compare with their colleagues work rate?

I don't think it's fair to complain now after all this time based purely on your own experience. It may just be you work faster generally. If they were consistently behind others in the team doing the same job, then I think you have grounds to complain.

I think it depends what the ultimate objective is. Do you want them to take on more work . In which case when they return start adding extra work . Sometimes people naturally slow down if there are no imminent deadlines and there is nothing else needed to be completed
Or do you feel the job could be done by employing someone to work less hours this is a lot more difficult to handle and would depend on contracts , employment legislation etc

Unfortunately they are the only person doing this job and have been since they started (bar a 6 month maternity leave period which also coincided with my own mat leave so I wasn't really aware of any difference in productivity).
It's soo hard. It will drive me mad but it's very difficult to suddenly decide after so long that I'm not happy with their work. A bit slower I could cope with as I appreciate not everyone works in exactly the same way, but it's more like 2.5-3 times slower output and the cost of that is huge.

@Stirmecrazy

I think it depends what the ultimate objective is. Do you want them to take on more work . In which case when they return start adding extra work . Sometimes people naturally slow down if there are no imminent deadlines and there is nothing else needed to be completed Or do you feel the job could be done by employing someone to work less hours this is a lot more difficult to handle and would depend on contracts , employment legislation etc

Ultimately I'd be looking for them to finish their 'usual' work by lunchtime, freeing them up to help in another department for a couple of hours in the afternoon (where we could really benefit from a bit more manpower, especially once lockdown is lifted, but can't really afford to employ someone else in the current climate). Based on my experience of covering this job, it would be easily achievable.

You could start setting targets now or expand the role but really you should have done so before and she'd be nuts not to go for a payrise if you give her more to do. Tricky really. It's not the employee's fault that she hasn't been managed effectively.

Can you watch them do the job, some sort of time and motion survey to see why they're so slow - maybe they're putting in extra steps/being a perfectionist/doing something you're not aware of?

Is it something like bookkeeping? So she’s entering the invoices much slower than you? Is there a lower volume of this work right now? So less invoices for example. That’s implied by the furloughing.

I would explain it to them openly.

"I've been able to do xyz in 3 hours per day for the last 6 months. Is there a reason you couldn't also do it within this time?... Check what processes they use in case they are adding in layers of complexity that aren't needed. Opportunity to check their ( IT ) skills are good enough. Are they getting distracted by other things like emails or chatting

Then go from there. It might shed light that they've been doing it in an over complex way or they dont know some shortcuts that might help

Then explain the reason. "We think you should be able to get it done in xyz timeframe and then in the afternoon do xyz to support the business

The fact you've put them on furlough surely means that they normally would have more to do? I thought you could only claim furlough if there was less work? Unless they are shielding. Either way, you really need to see why they aren't as productive as you. Would you not have been noticed that they were sitting around doing nothing?

My admin takes ages to do what I could do in a fraction of the time, that's why I've climbed the greasy pole and she hasn't. You pay your money and you take your choice

Maybe now is the perfect time to be looking at the team as a whole. Re-allocating tasks, cross-training etc rather than focusing on this one individual. Not knowing what type of work it is, it's a bit hard to advise anything specific.

Clearly in a small team there needs to be more than one person able to do a task in case of absence/furlough so go from that angle.

Surely it’s totally reasonable to
Increase their workload if they have the capacity? They must have been completing the work to a satisfactory standard and speed as you have never noticed any problem before. It not as if you have given them work that has been left incomplete? They are just completing the work set in the time given. So give them more work and see what happens! This happens to lots of us! We get given extra work and we have to work more
Efficiently to get it done. And if we try and fail then we negotiate new workloads or deadlines.

I would start with saying that they need to help in the other department from 2pm everyday and trial it for a month.

Have a review.

If they can't manage that then you may have to make their current role redundant and create a new one that is part or full time which is part time old role and part time other work.

If they manage it ok then slowly increase the time they have to help the other department and keep it under review accepting they may never me as quick as you.

TBH after an initial shock they may be happier having more work and the pressure that comes with it.

They probably spend a lot of time having drinks/being sociable, on the internet/their phone because they've historical not had time pressure.

If the volume or direction of business is likely to be lower going forward. maybe its time to have a strategic review of the organisation and staffing levels that you need.
That could be redundancies, reorganising teams and roles, implementing efficiencies.

You're presumably senior to this person if they're your employee. Are you also more highly qualified and more experienced than her in areas directly related to her job? Or is there no good reason why she should be so much slower, despite having carried out this work for much longer than you?

How much more senior are you? I could do some of my team members work in half the time, but I get paid more than double them so it still makes sense for them to do it? You need to realise not everyone has your experience it’s not necessarily they are being lazy

My admin takes ages to do what I could do in a fraction of the time, that's why I've climbed the greasy pole and she hasn't. You pay your money and you take your choice

This.

I understand your frustration but there's a reason you've moved beyond that level of work.

If you can't live with it going forward then I would be inclined to approach it in an entirely positive way: recognise ability and look to expand their role, discuss with them development and give some additional responsibility.

Its not fair to assume their rubbish at their job simply because you can do it more quickly. You also don't know if they have felt ignored and undervalued, or if their other problems they're encountering at work that say the motivation and productivity.

Perhaps no one has taken an interest before and they don't know what they're capable of. Or perhaps they're dealing with a long term health issue that slows them down.

I'd tread delicately and encourage growth through positivity.

There's nothing that's changed in what they do and what you've been doing? No extra distractions they deal with or different volume?

I'm not the fastest worker so I feel sympathy if they're doing their best. Maybe just monitor them to see if they are full focused or if they do seem like they're just taking their time before saying anything.

@Meme69

The fact you've put them on furlough surely means that they normally would have more to do? I thought you could only claim furlough if there was less work? Unless they are shielding. Either way, you really need to see why they aren't as productive as you. Would you not have been noticed that they were sitting around doing nothing?

My admin takes ages to do what I could do in a fraction of the time, that's why I've climbed the greasy pole and she hasn't. You pay your money and you take your choice

Yes there is much less work at the moment. I'm covering their job, working on it every other day (as we're having about half the volume of work). As my own job has much less to do at the moment, I planned to do my job one day, theirs the next. I need to be here everyday as a lot of it can't be done from home and need to be on site to receive deliveries etc. But I've realised that it's only taking me less than half a day to do what would've previously taken them a full day IYSWIM.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

If the volume or direction of business is likely to be lower going forward. maybe its time to have a strategic review of the organisation and staffing levels that you need. That could be redundancies, reorganising teams and roles, implementing efficiencies.

It should pick up once lockdown is lifted. Much of our work is carried out on behalf of an industry that is currently closed due to lockdown.

@Howtomakeevery1

How much more senior are you? I could do some of my team members work in half the time, but I get paid more than double them so it still makes sense for them to do it? You need to realise not everyone has your experience it’s not necessarily they are being lazy

I've never done this job before until we went into the first lockdown. It's not a skilled post.

Skilled or not, if you are more senior it is likely you are going to have skills she hasn't. I can chair a meeting, and type the notes as I go along and send them out within minutes of the meeting ending. My admin can't. She needs to write full notes, type them up, check her understanding of what has been said etc then send them out. It takes her at least 2 work days.

She is paid 60% less than me so I don't expect the same from her as I do myself

I had a manager who thought he could do my job more quickly than me. What he meant was, he could swan in, take some unchecked data, hack it into the system and declare the job done. Often his errors were obvious immediately, sometimes they came to light weeks or months later.

Not saying this is you but go carefully. Try to find out why it's taking your employee longer.

Can you upskill them - are they doing things manually which could be done quicker if they had better IT skills, for example?

So am I right in understanding it's taking you 1-1.5 full work days to get through their full week's work (but there's a bit less of their work right now) so you're guessing 2.5 full work days to do their job as it was pre-furlough?
Are you sure they're actually working that whole time? Because if they're genuinely slow, you will need to assess whether it's a training issue or a competence issue (that they can't work any faster). If they're going on FB, MN etc for a lot of the day, but you're happy with their work/attitude etc, definitely give them more to do.
What I'd do is incrementally give them more work and see how they handle the new challenge. They might not even realise how slowly they are currently going.

IMO things work a lot better for both employer and employee if you employ people for tasks, not for hours. She gets the tasks done to a great standard, so what's the problem?

In some roles you are literally paying someone to be at the workplace at certain times (receptionists, for example). But you're paying this woman to do X task - she could do it at 2am or 2pm and it doesn't matter, right?

All of my team work at different speeds even though they do the same job. I judge on output, not on time spent at their desks.