The University strategy has the following key objectives:

• To be a world leader in research
• To offer outstanding teaching and learning
• To offer all our students an outstanding and valuable experience

These objectives are extremely challenging and in order to achieve them we need highly knowledgeable and skilled individuals who are committed to working with colleagues to further their own career goals and those of the institution. While the vast majority of staff meet or exceed the standards expected of them, occasionally performance problems arise and an honest conversation may be needed in terms of whether they can deliver the level of performance required.

Signs of underperformance include:

• Struggling to achieve personal objectives
• Failing to meet the required performance standards for their role
• Making repeated mistakes
• Lacking energy and enthusiasm
• Failing to demonstrate the necessary initiative for their role
• Causing conflict with others through poor interpersonal skills
• Being persistently late
• Taking repeated short periods of time off sick
• Reacting in a disproportionate manner to certain situations
• Being rude to colleagues
• Poor feedback from others

Don't ignore the signs

Not addressing these issues can affect productivity and wellbeing of the individual and their colleagues. This can result in more complex and time-consuming problems in the future:

• the individual whose performance is below standard can find it stressful to be not meeting their goals
• there may be resentment or other negative impact, such as workload, on those who have to pick up the shortfall
• in severe cases, poor performance can lead to regulatory breaches, damage to the student experience or poor research progress