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?

I agree with other comments saying that you being able to do it faster doesn't necessarily mean she's doing something wrong. It also might be easier for you to do each piece more quickly if you're doing a smaller volume overall in small bursts. For some tasks it's hard to maintain pace. I used to spend a lot of my work time transcribing old documents and I always found that either my pace or my accuracy dropped during the day (and I could leave as soon as I'd finished, so had every incentive to keep working hard) - I might be able to do the first one in 30 mins, but that didn't mean I could do 16 in a day if I wanted to do them equally well.

@CaptSkippy

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 is what I was wondering

You say the workload is cut roughly in half hence why you have furloughed her
And say you are doing in a couple hrs, are you sure you have only halfed and its not actually less
Does the phone usually ring more which she answers or is answering other colleagues
Surely you should maybe compare doing her job when back to normal so it is a fair comparison and also are you sure your covering everything she does
If you have always been happy with her work and workload

Audit the work!
Time how long it takes to do each aspect of the work etc and then give her notice that things are changing in the workplace and there are her new targets.

Personally i think it's ridiculous that 7 years have passed without you knowing............

Presumably if there is less work generally there are fewer tasks related to the job they do so you can do it quicker as there isn't so much of it? Otherwise why is she furloughed ? I assume she isn't paid as much as you to perform the role? Why in 7 years haven't you spotted this if she isn't working quickly enough, seems bizarre. Perhaps there is more to it than you are doing now re developing systems etc. Reliability etc is worth a lot. Why not review things with her about how she'd like the role to develop, maybe she feels under utilised.

@eeek88

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.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. It's things like being slightly incompetent with respect to using ICT. A part of each task involves getting a measurement and entering the collected data into a database. I would just take the measurement and enter the value straight into the database as the computer is alongside my workstation. Employee prefers to write it down and then type it in with one finger, cross-referencing the product barcode several times before saving etc. Whereas I'm very much one to search for the product by name (using ctrl + F keyboard shortcut), know I've found and opened the correct file because very few products can be confused with another, take the measurement and enter the data, save and move on. I've always known that the employee doesn't feel confident using keyboard shortcuts and is very 'clunky' using IT (reminds me of my mum even though employee is 30 years younger ). As the actual IT work is a very small part of the task (and very quick for me), I didn't really think it mattered that employee is slower at this part and prefers to use the menus rather than shortcuts. But I can see that repeated X times a day, this could have a big impact. I think suggesting IT upskilling could be a good start.

Maybe give her 5 short cuts to get used to each week?

As another poster said - audit her doing the tasks

@stuckinarutatwork

if that's the case could you put coloured tape/stickers on say 'Control' and go from there. After 7 years she should be somewhat competent with basic IT (I'd class short cuts as basic IT).

If it's literally taking you half the time she does need to speed up. Maybe look at other employees too incase theyre also not being efficient with their time.

The true gauge will be when your business is back up to speed. You cannot be accurate when in a downturn and she's not been furloughed for no reason. She's furloughed because there's not enough work due to Covid restrictions, that's why you can do her work in a short time. There will be other things she does too. They're just not happening right now.

Good employees are hard to find. Get the full picture before you make plans to increase her workload or change her methods.

Ask her to show you how she does the tasks.

I've heard of people manually typing out looooong website links instead of copy and paste/share a link button etc.

Perhaps she has a job description, a set of responsibilities and as she is meeting them and was to your satisfaction, felt no reason to do her job as quickly as possible? Do many people do their work as fast as possible and then offer themselves for other work, or do they just do their job in the hours they've been assigned? Also, are you sure you fully understand what her role is like in normal, busy times? You might not be seeing the whole picture?

Are you just doing her main task. Do they do other stuff like they might spend an hour a day checking emails or spending time on the phone chasing something up. Or having meetings. So whilst you are doing their main task what about the other bits on the side.

You cannot even begin to imagine/gauge her real workload if the volume of work is not there? It's taking you less time because there's hardly any work! Once everything is back up and running, then do the job and see.

We realised when someone left and I took over their role how poorly they'd been working. I now do in a day what they did in a week, and still made errors that cost us about a year's profit.
I'd explain to them, you've noticed while you've been covering their work that it doesn't take as long as you thought it did, ask if they struggle with anything, if they've noticed the work load to be lower than the time given, and if you could pass more work their way to infill that time.

@Ladylimpet

You cannot even begin to imagine/gauge her real workload if the volume of work is not there? It's taking you less time because there's hardly any work! Once everything is back up and running, then do the job and see.

But I'm doing their job for less time too, even considering the reduced workload. So pre-Covid there would typically be say 20 tasks per day (100 per week) for this employee, which would usually take them their full day (6 hours) to do the 20. During lockdown, our workload has reduced to around 40-50 tasks a week. As my workload has also reduced and I cannot furlough myself - even part-time - due to essential admin duties, it made sense to fully furlough the employee and I intended to do their 20 tasks on Monday, my job on Tuesday, employee's job (another 20 tasks) on Weds, my jobs on Thurs and Friday a combination of employees' tasks if any left, and my own work. However, on Mondays and Wednesdays, I've finished the employee's 20 tasks by midday (often before), whereas they usually take until the end of the day (they work 9-3). The tasks themselves haven't changed in terms of time taken, just the number of them as we're getting less work. Regarding do they have other responsibilities such as answering the phone - generally no they don't (very occasionally if the admin person has nipped to the loo / is off sick). Whereas whilst I'm covering for them, I also have to answer phone / take deliveries (although both events are less frequent than normal as we're so quiet).

I think don’t frame it as a criticism - put it in terms of wanting to streamline processes, and make the business more resilient and able to adapt while the industry gets back to normal and changes keep happening.

So for all employees (not just this one) ask them to think about procedures, could they streamline anything, is there any extra training that could help them? And then gently steer this employee towards some IT training.

Ask them to get everything done by 2.30 so you can have a chat about how it’s going before they leave, then ask them to finish by 2 so they can help elsewhere etc etc. Ultimately move them towards finishing that role by midday. Lots of praise and encouragement along the way about how well they’ve done improving processes so they can develop their role and help elsewhere etc etc.

You've spotted a weakness in her it skills and confidence of this, so I'd suggest getting her training or make her just in put the information like you have and just say its taking for to long how shes doing it, she can under take this training while she's off