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?

Look forward in your next supervision. Compliment them on their work, what’s positive and ask them how they find the pace and ask which bits they find difficult and slow them down. You could ask them for solutions for the areas that slow them down and agree to meet in a month and review how things have gone. Deliver it as supportive rather then critical. However it might just be that the person is very methodical and accurate rather then slap dash

Do you think there’s responsibilities they are undertaking which you’re not?

Also worth considering that they might be dyslexic or have slow processing.

To be honest if I was working extremely slowly I wouldn’t really have a leg to stand on if my employer called me out on it. What can she possibly say? Even if she’s offended, she can’t really come up with a logical reason why you are THREE times faster at doing a task. Most likely being that she’s realised you’re fine with her for working at this relaxed pace over the years so why would she bother speeding up. A nice luxury for her but ultimately things can’t carry on that way.

Why have you only now realised that they're so slow? Has something changed? And 'until recently, I've had no complaints'; what are these complaints exactly?

Even if she’s offended, she can’t really come up with a logical reason why you are THREE times faster at doing a task

You don't know that. My boss had to do my job for a week a while ago. He thought he could do it faster and gave me more work to do on my return. Until there was a near disaster and it turned out he hadn't understood half of the process of my job, had missed several crucial elements, hadn't done any of my supervisory role either so had impacted on staff below me, and had caused a mess that took another week to rectify.
On actually understanding all of it, it turned out that he would take twice as long as me to do my work, at least (and was still shite at parts of it!)

Maybe she has the work done but has to stay on as employed for the full day. Or she may just be stretching it out to fill the day as that's all the work she is given. I worked at a job one summer where the boss set me work each morning. I could have done it in 3 hours but as l was hired for a full day l tried to stretch it out as didn't want to be idling around after it was done. It was exhausting trying to look busy.
As she has a child could you offer her part time work if she is interested. Or gradually increase her responsibilities. It's not really her fault if she did what she was required so no need to get annoyed.

@sobloodyconfusing

To be honest if I was working extremely slowly I wouldn’t really have a leg to stand on if my employer called me out on it. What can she possibly say? Even if she’s offended, she can’t really come up with a logical reason why you are THREE times faster at doing a task. Most likely being that she’s realised you’re fine with her for working at this relaxed pace over the years so why would she bother speeding up. A nice luxury for her but ultimately things can’t carry on that way.

Given that OP doesn’t want her to do more of her own tasks, but wants her to go and work in a totally different department in the afternoon, it sounds like there isn’t more for her to do in her role. She’s employed for 5 days, and completes all her tasks within those days. I don’t think it’s her fault that management have misjudged the time requirements for the role

@IntermittentParps

Why have you only now realised that they're so slow? Has something changed? And 'until recently, I've had no complaints'; what are these complaints exactly?

She's the only person who has ever done this particular job in all the time she's worked for us (since the business was started). She does X tasks a day and I've always been happy with it. During her furlough I've been able to typically do in less than a full morning the same volume of tasks that she'd get through in a day. It's made me realise that the job could / should be done much faster. I don't think she's taking the piss by going on social media during work time or anything like that. I've never once suspected she's slacking off. She's a great and loyal employee who will always go the extra mile (swap a day off without question if asked, will often work 5-10 minutes extra to avoid leaving something unfinished.) I suspect she's just very slow in her technique and that absolutely needs addressing but when she's done the job for so long, it's hard to start criticising now.

OK, so if you don't want to lose her but you need the job done faster, can you approach it as training?

@stuckinarutatwork
I suspect she's just very slow in her technique and that absolutely needs addressing but when she's done the job for so long, it's hard to start criticising now.

I would wonder then if this is a good time to do some work within the annual appraisals. Make sure that you set challenging but meaningful SMART targets though, that are time bound with reviews built in. If she doesn't meet then it maybe necessary to move to a performance improvement plan as a prelude to capability. But really that would mean that what you've put in place has failed.
I would perhaps take this as part of a bigger "review" of work practises following furlough and the covid lockdowns etc.

Focussing on how processes could be streamlined. Take this as a discussion. Focus on any training gaps. But consider the entire process from first contact with client to paid for the services. And likelihood is that if she's lacking in efficiency, you could have others the same and others over. So discussing with all may reveal other focal points.

If there's a need to have this employee elsewhere, then it maybe worth to look at a formal restructure, where she's 50% her current role and 50% something else. Though potentially I'd say that 1/3 or 1/4 other would be more manageable in terms of if her role becomes busier etc and also in terms of restructure of role, if its less than a 50% change in the role its easier.

If after training, review of her processes and methods etc, training needs, she's still struggling then

Do they normally have phones, emails and walk ins to deal with as well as the admin?

OP its up to you as an employer to give her the work to fill her hours, if she isn't being given anything else to do of course she is going to make it take all day otherwise she'll be bored.

You need to increase her responsibilities to she has extra to do and then she may be quicker at the first stuff

Maybe she’s not slow but has been working slowly to fill out the day because she’s worried if she highlights she can do all the work, you’ll cut her hours?

I’d use the excuse of furlough to give her extra tasks when she gets back. Even if your industry will pick up after lockdown, might that take some weeks? In which case, perfect excuse to add another task.

Or just tell her you’ve taken all the disruption this last year as an opportunity to mix up some tasks so she gets some new stuff to do.

Have a kind conversation and talk about how they perceive their workload, speed and quality.

Are they taking time working on details that you don't consider important? Are they fretting about decisions you have full authority to make? Listen to them rather than accuse. Find solutions and ways to remove barriers. Work alongside them a few times.

Once she is settled back in just have a chat with her about it.

"Hi employee. I'd like to free up some of your time so you can help in X part of the business because your input would be invaluable there. I've been covering your role for a few months and so would like to work alongside you for a few days to see if I can make any suggestions and also get your feedback on improvements we can make to speed up the process".

Then you can get an idea of why it's taking so long and help her speed up.

What you CANT do is turn a blind eye to it because you'll become resentful.

@Cocomarine

Maybe she’s not slow but has been working slowly to fill out the day because she’s worried if she highlights she can do all the work, you’ll cut her hours?

I’d use the excuse of furlough to give her extra tasks when she gets back. Even if your industry will pick up after lockdown, might that take some weeks? In which case, perfect excuse to add another task.

Or just tell her you’ve taken all the disruption this last year as an opportunity to mix up some tasks so she gets some new stuff to do.

@Cocomarine Our receptionist does this, she's slow in accepting change and adapting, new IT for example. Work has slowed anyway with the pandemic and she's part time furlough. 2 days is all we really need her for.

It's not easy if the work has been accepted or not criticised as unacceptable for 7 years. Seems somehow a failure either to find out enough about the job to be able to manage a poor performer.

Whatever you decide, hope it works out for you.

I suspect she's just very slow in her technique and that absolutely needs addressing

Why? It sounds like x number of these tasks needs to be done a day, and she's doing x number. Or are there infinite tasks?

OP if your workload has been cut in half, could it be that hers' is aswell and that's why you can do it so quickly?

Maybe have a chat when she gets back. Not in the sense oif criticism, but more as in comparing notes to see if she actually is that much slower.

This really depends. Do you pay them for the job or for an amount of hours

If you pay them for a particular job description including various agreed responsibilities and you offered the market rate for that work, good for them if it doesnt take them 35 hours a week. It's their choice not to take on more work and earn more, if they can do work with a value of y in fewer hours.

If you pay them for a non specific function for a number of hours, gradually increase what you ask of them. If they haven't been given enough to do for 7 years yes they may well have just slowed down and allowed the work to fill the time.

My job doesn't take me my full hours. I'm good at it, plenty of people who do a similar role take the full time to get the same work done. I'm not ambitious or keen to progress so i choose to benefit from having a relatively relaxed day working fewer hours. I fulfill all my responsibilities and do so well so it's no one's business how many hours I need to spend.

She does X tasks a day and I've always been happy with it.

If it was enough work for the money before, why isnt it enough now? You've got completely the wrong idea of what productivity is.

It's not making people work as many hours as possible.

What do you think the problem is? Is she just slow (eg a very slow typist) or does she waste time by doing unnecessary things all day, or does she go on Facebook or chat all day?

Does this person answer calls or emails that you're not currently getting? I've done a few jobs where the work didn't take anywhere near as long on days I could ignore the phone.

I work with someone who is incredibly slow... takes her 3 hours to do what I do in about an hour. The frustrating thing is she’s paid more than me because she’s 20 years older and has been there forever. Drives me nuts. I’ve tried shaming her into working faster by doing the task in front of her (if we’ve been asked to do the same task) to show how little time it needs to take, but when I do that she picks holes in it and patronises me afterwards. I’ve learned to do the task plus one other, in private, and then compare our respective tasks without mentioning that I’ve also done something else. She doesn’t pick holes in it then.

In her case she’s slow because she’s a very slow typist and lacks confidence with ict , is very diligent and thorough (too diligent!), doesn’t realise that some things just don’t need to be checked 5 times before being submitted, is insecure because she knows that she’s been promoted above her ability and can’t seem to prioritise tasks very well. She’s not stupid. But I’m definitely better at my job than she is, which drives me nuts. I wouldn’t mind if I was paid the same as her.