Underperforming employees are easy to detect. Hampering task quality, missed deadlines and meetings, presenteeism, or slacking off at work are among the signs that your employee is unable to meet company’s expectations. The question is, should you keep them or should you fire them immediately? 

The real cost of keeping them in the team

The truth is, letting go of underperforming employees in immediate time is not a strange idea. In fact, as reported by Adecco, underperforming employees can cost a lot – a greater amount than hiring new staff. Keeping the underachievers can affect workplace culture and worse, they could drive other employees to go. 

See also: The 4 Reasons Why HR Officers Could be Fired

Underperforming employees also affect manager in terms of time. Some individuals might be open and increase their performance after training. Unfortunately, not everyone develops the same way of thinking and motivation. Some people just do not want to be coached and make changes. They are not willing to meet their supervisor or growing into the performer that the business needs. As consequences, leaders often waste time coaching the said employees. 

Moreover, after providing intensive training but the employees do not change a bit, an employer should spend budget on new recruitment or replacement. This financial implication will depend on your underachiever’s length of service and their roles. Commonly, Adecco added, the average cost per hire is approximately US$4,000. If you fail to replace the said employees with effective and reliable candidates, you will suffer from greater hiring cost. 

Between retention and replacement 

As a smart HR leader, you should not make a sudden change to your organisation as it might bring a negative result to the bottom line. Therefore, take a moment and try to calculate your budget between replacing the underachievers and retaining them. As mentioned earlier, it depends on the level of seniority and length of work. In general, hiring junior level officers will cost cheaper than hiring senior level ones. 

Thus, if the underperformer is in a junior position who can no longer give a good sign of high performance, a replacement can be a good choice. If, on the contrary, the underperformed staff is at senior level, sending him/her into PIP program could be the right move.

Read also: Should We Give Promotion to Underperforming Employees?