The Manager's Toolkit

WHAT IS CAPABILITY MANAGEMENT?

" Capability " refers to an employee's skills, ability, aptitude and knowledge in relation to the job that he or she is employed to do.

Very few employees choose to perform their work badly, make mistakes, fail to complete tasks or have poor relationships with colleagues or customers.

A lack of capability will, in most cases, lead to unsatisfactory job performance , which may result in objectives not being achieved and have an impact on both the employee's colleagues and you, as their manager. In the event that an employee is underperforming you should be prepared to examine the circumstances and give support to the individual to help them improve and reach the required standard of competence - rather than contemplating disciplinary action. Take appropriate action as soon as it is noticed that the employee is not performing certain aspects of their role satisfactorily. Delaying - or worse doing nothing - may cause the performance problem to escalate .

A lack of capability exists where, no matter how hard an employee tries, they are simply unable to perform the job to the required standard. It is the agreed standard that is relevant, and no t the line manager's personal opinion of the employee.

The result of this could be that you have to deal with a major crisis caused by underperformance rather than dealing with a problem while it is still in its infancy.