 Working out how to manage lazy team members and taking the right action to reduce or remove the issue is a challenge that most managers dread. I certainly never enjoyed it, yet I knew that taking no action was by far the worst option. If you ignore the problem laziness has a way of spreading into the rest of the team. Take action quickly. I'm taking you through six actions to take for how to deal with lazy employees. And towards the end of the video I share where you can get more advice and guidance on how to deal with lazy employees and other difficult staff members. My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25 year management career in corporate and household names through to SMEs, from professional level through to board director. Dealing effectively and fairly with lazy and other difficult team members is a must if you want a successful career in team management. And if you're new to this channel enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. There can be lots of reasons why employees become or are lazy and without finding out more taking the right action is really tough. The first action for how to manage lazy team members is don't ignore lazy behavior. By ignoring lazy team members you're effectively signaling through your actions to the individual and the whole of the team that it is okay to be lazy at work. The unintended message you are sending is that I won't deal with a lazy employee so be as lazy as you like. The lazy employee will continue being lazy and may well even get worse. The rest of the team know the team member is being lazy and see you not taking action to tackle the lazy team member. This leaves the team with no real incentive to work hard. The productivity of the team starts dropping. Your effectiveness as a manager will be called into question. Don't let a downward spiral start. Take action. Also your annoyance, anger and stress levels are going to rise the longer you put off dealing with a lazy employee. As a manager you must deal with a lazy team member. The quicker you take action to manage the lazy employee the easier it is to improve their work ethic and the less problems you're going to have when dealing with the rest of the team. Take action quickly to tackle a lazy staff member. The second action for how to manage lazy team members is to understand why the team member is lazy. Book a private meeting room and talk to the lazy employee. Set out the issues you are having with their performance. The reason why their laziness is an issue for you, for the team and for the business and provide specific examples. Go through the impact on you, the team and the business as well. Do not talk in general terms. Be specific and use examples and then give them a chance to respond. Remember there can be a big difference between a previously hardworking team member who has become lazy compared to an employee that always seems to be lazy. If the employee's motivation has changed find out why they have become lazy until you speak to them and ask them you'll only be guessing. Be supportive, care and most importantly actively listen to what they say. Ask what the problem is and then stop talking. It is harder than it sounds, particularly if the silence stretches into two or three minutes. When you know what the problems are then you are in a much better place to help that individual. Some common reasons for employees being lazy include, if firstly lacking direction or understanding of what is expected of them. Secondly they don't feel that they are able to do what is being asked of them, i.e. potentially a lack of training. Third they lack feedback to know what is going well or not and have become disheartened. Fourth they might be really bored in their role or lack goals that stretch them. Fifth they might have personal issues outside of work. Sixth they may have physical or mental health issues. Seventh they may be upset or angry about decisions made or actions taken by you or others at work. And then eighth they may be unresolved conflicts with other team members. And there are plenty of other reasons too. Speak to the individual about their behaviour and lack of motivation. Be specific and use examples of their behaviour and then actively listen to their response. Find out why they have become lazy or why they are being lazy. The third action for how to manage lazy team members is to set expectation with the lazy employee. Tell the lazy team member what you think and set out what you want them to change i.e. set out your expectations. Ask the lazy employee for feedback and input into the expectations. Getting their input and compromising takes more time than just setting out your expectations. The benefit you get is the other person has inputted into the expectations has been listened to and you have compromised. All of which mean they are a lot more likely to agree with and own the expectations and thus be motivated to achieve them. Next set measurable goals together. Once you've agreed the goals to be reached or what good looks like discuss how they're going to get from where they are now to meeting and beating those goals. Get the lazy employee to provide input and ideas on how they're going to improve their attitude, motivation and behaviour. Find out what help they need. With lazy employees I suggest that you agree acceptable levels of output from activities and projects that they're working on. Use other team members output as a benchmark if possible. Create a timeframe for the lazy staff member to reach the level of outputs agreed. Timeframes could range from a day or so through to a couple of months. It really depends on what is being worked on. Create and communicate clear measurable expectations. The fourth action to manage lazy team members is to remove all the excuses and provide training. Most lazy employees that I've dealt with provide a long list of excuses as to why they are not able to deliver as much as their colleagues. Note down the excuses that they provide. Some you may be able to challenge on the spot. Others you should take away and do some homework. Don't pit your opinion against their opinion. Pit evidence against their opinion, which is a lot harder to argue against. Do your homework and then come back to the lazy employee. For all the spurious excuses demonstrate that these are not real factors. They are saved by comparing output to their colleagues output who use the same resources and training. And also lack of training is usually one of the excuses most lazy employees use. Review what training has been given. Some people don't learn as quickly, so a training refresher may well help if practical to give. If they have not previously received training, provide it. Work to counter and remove all the spurious excuses. Follow up with your arguments and evidence in writing to the lazy individual. With genuine issues, work out how you're going to help the individual overcome that issue. It is in your interest to ensure that you do your best to support the lazy employee. Putting in a bit of time and resources to increase the output from the lazy staff member is cheaper, quicker and less hassle than finding a new employee. Putting the effort to remove all the spurious excuses the lazy employee has and fill a new genuine gaps in skills, resources and knowledge that they may have. The fifth action for how to manage lazy team members is to provide honest feedback and monitor for improvements. I recommend that you provide lots of open and honest feedback to the lazy employee. Without specific feedback, they are not going to know where they are falling down and what expectations they are meeting. Leaving them guessing is not fair to them and it does not help improve their performance. When giving feedback, do your best to make it firstly as open and honest as possible. Secondly, that the feedback is specific and as detailed as possible. Use lots of examples. Third, give feedback with their development in mind. And then fourth, don't delay giving feedback. You want them to improve as quickly as possible. And as a manager, it is vital that you monitor progress and measure the performance improvements in some way. Then you can discuss facts and data with the lazy team member rather than just your opinion against their opinion. Facts and data are much less subjective and a lot fairer plus it is clear on how the individual has been proved or not. In some examples of a measurement include, if firstly tracking sales generated against targets. Secondly, cost savings gained against targets. Thirdly, activities performed in an improved time frame or quality level. Fourth, projects completed to agreed parameters. Fifth, scored feedback from colleagues, customers or suppliers. When relying on opinion, try to gather several opinions rather than just putting forward your own. This has more weight to the feedback and is a lot fairer. Give honest, useful feedback. Be as specific as possible. Feedback on what is going well and what is not and use data to provide factual progress assessment where possible. The sixth action to manage lazy team members is to take formal action if the lazy behavior continues. If you're seeing no signs of improvement or not enough improvement, then take more formal actions to deal with the lazy employee. I would recommend moving the lazy team member on to a personal improvement plan, which sets out clear expectations in a written document with suggestions of how to achieve those expectations or goals. It also sets out how you're going to monitor progress. In using a personal improvement plan, move your actions onto a more formal setting. Involve HR to increase the pressure on the lazy team member to change if needed. The work you put in to agree and document the plan and your monitoring of the progress or lack of it can be used as part of the disciplinary process, which will be your final step to turn to. It is painful to remove someone from the business, for them, for you and for your team. If a person is not helping the team or is not happy, they're likely to be better off in a different job and in a different environment. Make the difficult choices and take action. And moving a lazy employee who doesn't want to work harder to another team or department may seem like an easier option, but it will not be easy for the business overall. The problem will remain and someone else will have to deal with it. Passing the buck is likely to come back to haunt you when your managers are talking about who to promote and which manager to give more staff to. So work out how to deal with the lazy team member and take action to resolve the problems one way or the other. And to get more detailed guidance and examples on how to deal with lazy and other difficult team members, take a look at our management skills accelerator program by going to enhance.training. Please use the six actions outlined for how to manage lazy team members. It is really important for everyone that you take action quickly when you spot lazy behavior. This will help the lazy team member, you, your team and the business. The actions we've been through include firstly, don't ignore lazy behavior. Secondly, understand why the team member is being lazy. Third, set expectations with the lazy employee. Fourth, remove all the excuses and provide training. Fifth, provide honest feedback and monitor for improvements. And sixth, take formal action if the lazy behavior continues. If you have any questions on how to manage lazy team members, please leave a comment below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.