WWYD? Underperforming team member

[DivisionBelles]

I've just been promoted at work to the manager of my small team. This is a newly created role and the team hasn't had a manager before me. This is also my first management role. There's 3 of us; me, been there 4.5 years; colleague 1, worked at the company for 9ish years in the same role and colleague 2, who has worked for the company for 30+ years and has seen it start from a very small enterprise and grow into a much larger, more professional organisation.

Colleague 2, let's call her Sarah, has not had a proper defined role for a number of years and instead has been allowed pretty much free reign to do very little. Company owner (and my direct boss) sees value in Sarah because of length of service and because she does know the company well. Unfortunately she's now been given a role in my team.

Sarah has not moved with the times and is struggling with the new technology we've recently started using, as well as routine things like answering the phone and replying to emails. These skills are all a fundamental part of our business and everyone needs to be able to do it competently. Sarah is very slow and unconfident so consequently her productivity is minimal. Colleague 1 (Jane) is getting fed up as currently she is carrying Sarah.

I need to motivate Sarah, but she is prone to tears - I think because she knows she's struggling. I'm very patient with her, explaining things, helping her get used to the new system, but she's just not getting it. The phone will ring, and she'll ignore it, or conveniently pretend to be busy doing something else. In any one day there can be 100+ emails to answer, but if she does 5 it's a miracle. My boss will 100% not get rid of her, but I'm struggling to think of ways to get her to work faster and more pro-actively without my input all the time. Moreover, Jane is getting pissed off as her workload has increased significantly.

Any tips on how I can coach her to work better?

I'd do a one to one with her, take her out of the office to a local hotel reception or book a meeting room for two hours and say 'Sarah, you don't seem to be happy in this role. How can I help you to do the job that we both know has to be done? We need you to be able to answer the phone, and emails as that is the basics of the job. Can we explore your options here? Can we start getting to the bottom of this before pressure comes from above?'

Obviously leave gaps in between to gauge her response. Work through whether she can't see the screen clearly, can't type because of pain in her hands, doesn't like sitting in front of a screen etc etc.

How is it she has existed for so long, explore what it is she has done, does she feel it is a demotion to be doing emails? Does she just want to not work? What is it she does enjoy? Etc etc etc.

Giving her call targets will not get the best response if you actually want her to improve.

What is she good at?

We have the same thing sort of. We have a 60 yo admin assistant... Who can't even fucking mail merge.

They have to send out about 150 letters at the end of the month. I happened to be in the office as they were doing this "task". They complained about how it takes then two days.. TWO DAYS to do these letters, and every else gets out in hold.

Turns out they had a template letter. Would open the database, look up Customer 1, type in their name and address into the letter.

Then check another document, type in the relevant details for that month.
Then they print the letter.
Then close the letter without saving (otherwise the "lose" the template)
Type the address in to the label template.
Print the label. (A second trip to printer at end of corridor)
Then fold the letter.
Put the label sticker on.
Put it in a pile.

Then do letter 2.

If anyone is wrong (say a typo in the address, because they won't even C&P) they do the letter again

I asked why they don't just do a mail merge? The whole job including getting it franked would take 30 minutes...max

The didn't know what a mail merge was.

So I did it for them that month to show them how easy it was. They said "oh no, too difficult, can't do that"

So I went to their line manager to get them training and support.
The manager didn't believe me that they spent 2 days doing this and that the person MUST be using mail merge.
I said no, the person needs training, and I can even produce a step by step guide for them.. they said they would look into it. ...

Two years later, they're still spending two days a month doing a 30 minute job

Thank you for all your advice. I went into work today determined to get her working harder.

I spent an hour or so this morning writing out a departmental processes document. Gave it to Jane as well so it didn't appear like I was singling Sarah out, even though Jane is fully competent and is able to work with minimal input. Sarah just glanced at it and started waffling on about a noticeboard she needs. Anyway, she now has it and there is no excuse for her to say she doesn't know what to do and when to do it.

Minor improvements on the phones though as Jane was primed to ignore it, meaning Sarah had to pick it up. She managed to take a few card payments without asking me to watch over her shoulder to make sure she does it correctly. She is obviously very unconfident, but I've told her that she can only get more confident if she tackles the issue head on.

It's the emails that I think are the crux of the problem because she is so slow. We use collaborative emails so I will be assigning her a set amount per day to answer and I will be monitoring her productivity over the next few weeks.

Tomorrow my boss is in the office, so I will be having a chat to try and implement a strategy going forwards, and what will happen if she can't/won't improve.

A good start, and being demonstrably fair is really needed here. Where my daughter works they have live chats and emails to deal with - when it's your turn there are no excuses. And it's all monitored so a standard practice, good luck.

I remember working with some technophobe admin workers over a decade ago. I'm actually kind of impressed that someone could get to 2019 in an office role and still not be able to do basic IT stuff!

Good start, OP. Hope she steps up! If not, you have a paper trail...

good luck too OP, your responses to her & the specific training support to her show your abilities too in your new role.
my sister has an admin role & is also really struggling with computer/tech/software changes - ie, from her tales to me of disliking the changes their office is making to be more efficient/productive etc.

I dont sympathise overly as I personally think that while change can be unsettling, it is good for all of us (to not be stuck in a rut; to adapt to new technology etc) - but I can imagine your frustrations

@00100001 that reminds me of the time I asked someone for some basic stats and found them adding up columns of figures from the excel spreadsheet- with a calculator 🤦‍♀️

You need to inform your boss that you will lose every productive member of your team due to Sarah's ineptitude. The day will come, and probably soon, when the good workers get so fed up having to carry Sarah that they will seek employment elsewhere. I've seen this happen more times than I can count. It is incredibly stressful and discouraging knowing that when you get to work, not only will you be responsible for your own tasks, but you will also be saddled with someone else's because they suck at their job. Turnover is very expensive and very disruptive.

How is Sarah getting on, op?

@tenlittlecygnets better actually. I've been so busy doing other things that she had to knuckle down this afternoon. Showing signs of pro-actively finding work now too.

I will be gradually doing less admin and more managerial stuff so she's got to step in and do more. I'm not expecting miracles to have happened in a few days, but I'm feeling a bit more positive now.

Wow, that's a great start! She may well be feeling better too - that she is making a positive contribution, using her brain, not being a dead weight.

That's great news. Hopefully her confidence will grow now and she'll become more independent.

She needs to get up to date with basic skills. Maybe she never learnt to type properly and is scared of all this modern technology stuff. Does she have difficulties with spelling, numbers, gets all tongue tied on the phone. Could it be she is really lacking in confidence or just being lazy and happy to let everyone pick up the work. She needs an appraisal, performance review, offers of training and regular updates. If that doesnt work is there any opportunity of a non admin role for her.