Performance issue with an employee (NHS), ideas?

[suewho67]

I'm an NHS manager responsible for a team of 7.

Late last year an admin lady joined us. I'll call her Claire. Band 4 position, quite a lot of responsibility in terms of leading the secretarial and admin provision for the team.
Claire quickly proved disappointing. She's what might be described as old fashioned in her views, not big on technology. Just yesterday I asked her to change a printer cartridge and ended up having to finish the job myself. Lots of other examples I could give. In all honesty I don't feel Claire is up to a Band 4 standard with her knowledge and experience.
A few years ago she worked as a Band 3 in a different Trust, then had a couple of years off to look after her sick husband.
I initiated an informal performance plan after explaining my concerns to Claire and she was ok with this. However, at the 2nd meetings regarding this plan she disclosed a mental health difficulty which he said affects her work, concentration and energy levels.
I believe her MH issue is genuine, referred her to occupational health. They assessed her and declared she's ok to be at work but will need regular meetings with me to check on how she's feeling. Claire is on meds and also having talking therapy (something she's arranged privately).
In view of her MH disclosure I decided to take her off the informal performance plan as felt it could add more pressure to her at what is already a challenging time for her.
Claire's mistakes, poor knowledge and lack of concentration have continued. Should I put her back on the plan? I know I need to tread carefully and wouldn't want to be appear unsympathetic towards her MH issue.
On the other hand, I myself am having to covering most of the team's secretarial work and typing as Claire's standard of work is so poor at the moment. I can't afford for this to continue indefinitely.
Ideas?

Weekly 1:2:1s where you review last week, check MH and set objectives for next week. Having identified objectives make sure she receives training/coaching. Do this for 6 weeks if no measurable improvement then put her on performance plan. Make sure you follow the performance management policy/process.

Identify in priority order which tasks she needs to be doing right to reduce your workload. Each week focus on one task and retrain/coach so you build up slowly.

Get Claire to be pro active in setting the next weeks objectives and identify her development needs - you will need to prompt. Then the next week ask her first how she did against the objectives. This is about getting her to recognise she is not meeting objectives. Make Claire responsible for writing up the objectives and progress against them.

Has she been given reasonable instructions and access to SOPs or is she often expected to wing it?

Back on the plan, regular 1:1s and possibly contact HR for extra support. Am assuming that you use KSF or similar? She can be supported in the workplace but if it turns out she's consistently under performing then you'll have your documented 1:1 and performance management tools to evidence lack of progression. Maybe when her MH improves her performance will too. Is there coaching available at your trust? Or training available for her?

I’m pretty surprised you’d expect a band 4 to “lead” a team. My trust would have band 5 and above doing that. Band 4 is higher level admin so rather than basic inputting or phone answering they’d be expected to use initiative. I’m a band 8a and have no idea how to change a printer cartridge! Are your expectations clear and have you provided training? If so then setting clear, achievable targets would be helpful for you and her.

I think changing a printer cartridge would involve half my office and we'd still end up calling IT and having a good laugh about it. Is it in the job description or does it fall under "any other duties"?

I agree with others. If she doesn't know how to change the cartridge, she doesn't know. No shame in that. But, if she can't follow the instructions/won't take notes when you show her, that's an issue.

I think it's shocking that admin is paid so little in the NHS.

I also agreed with all your concerns except the printer cartridge. I work for a large corporate, we must have ten different printers across the floors all with different toners. I also have a printer at home, every printer I have used is a new learning experience.

Imo, in this example, the MH ossie, is irrelevant to the underperformance and I wouldn't have paused the first one as it makes it looks like you were wrong in invoking it.

What training and support can be offered?

To be honest, if you (as her manager) didn’t teach her how to change the ink cartridge when she started, how did you expect her to magically know how now? It’s not common sense as not all printers are uniform, especially not one used in a corporate environment. You should have at least given her the instruction manual.

Are we really all suggesting that a literate person should be incapable of using a manual, or the instructions on the the printer cartridge box or oreitner to work this out?

It's pretty blood basic whether an industrial printer or one specific for her use.

There's a lot of trying to make excuses here. Personally, if someone isn't computer literate and hasn't done anything about it, then they deserve to be on a performance improvement plan!

What Band are you OP? I ask because, as a Band 4 myself, I've never heard of an admin line manager picking up typing.

@m0therofdragons

I’m pretty surprised you’d expect a band 4 to “lead” a team. My trust would have band 5 and above doing that. Band 4 is higher level admin so rather than basic inputting or phone answering they’d be expected to use initiative. I’m a band 8a and have no idea how to change a printer cartridge! Are your expectations clear and have you provided training? If so then setting clear, achievable targets would be helpful for you and her.

Goodness me! In the health board I worked for, a band 3 was higher level admin! I was offered a manager's job on a band 4, which included managing six members of staff!!

NHS HR Director here. You shouldn’t have taken her off the plan if she isn’t meeting the set standards. You should have referred to Occ Health for a view on any adjustments - at work and to the plan. Having a MH isn’t a magic get out clause.

Doesn’t your Trust have a Capability Policy? Do you not have HR support?

As others have stated you should approach your HR team for support with this.

However, you do seem to have misunderstood your role as her manager. People don’t magically know how to do jobs, especially if they have been out of the workforce for a number of years, as this lady has. It is your responsibility (now that you have employed her) to ensure she is given adequate training and support in her role. If then she is still unable to do it then you will need to instigate your Trust’s capability procedure (with strong support from HR), you don’t have to put up with substandard levels of work, but equally employees don’t have to put up with managers who don’t set out clear expectations first.