I usually read the Central Penn Business Journal each week and love their blog.
The past two weeks they have had a pretty good discussion about skill level and attitude and when to make the tough choice of laying off workers. They suggest ranking people in four categories based on skill level and attitude:
- Good skills/good attitude: These are your best people. Forget laying them off. The job here is retention. Let them know how much they are appreciated.
- Poor skills/good attitude: Think twice before letting anyone with a good attitude go. You can teach the skills, but you can’t teach the attitude. Put a training plan together, and help them move into the top group.
- Poor skills/poor attitude: This is a no-brainer. What have you been waiting for?
- Good skills/poor attitude: This group usually consists of unhappy prima donnas, tolerated because of their high skill levels, often the best of the best. Because of that, they often become informal opinion leaders, spreading their bad attitudes to others. Attempts to stroke them upset the people with good attitudes. They are not just sub-par employees; they are harmful. Put them at the top of the list.
You may take a short-term hit on skill levels, but long term you’ll get a big boost in attitudes and overall performance. Remember in the book Good to Great, Collins and his researchers state that Great organization got the right people on the bus (and in the correct seat) and the wrong people off the bus.
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