Capability / Performance Management

Performance management at its best is holding 121’s, providing regular feedback, coaching, upskilling and helping your teams to thrive and improve. But sometimes people find they are unable to fully carry out the requirements of the role be that due to medical issues or other factors.

It may be that they need more training and support, need to be shown something again or need more time. After you’ve exhausted all of that, you may need to go down a formal route. This route is slightly different to the standard disciplinary route.

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How Mint can help you manage capability

Ensuring you have a policy which covers what is expected and documents the capability process.
Providing a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) toolkit to help you navigate the process and hopefully avoid it having to go formal.
Offering general advice, acting as a sounding board to advise if you should move to the formal stage.
Formalising the process, assisting with creation of the PIP and invite.
Preparing a brief for the meeting, including pre-prepared questions- that way — if you want to lead — you know exactly what to ask.

Hold the meeting — either as lead or support.
Record the meeting — something to refer back to.
Provide advice to assist in the all-important decision, should a formal sanction be imposed.
Follow up in writing, ensuring the individual is aware of the right to appeal.
Support with any appeal.
Check in later down the line to make sure everything is improving and if not, help with moving to the next stage.

Case Study

A client of ours contacted us as they had an employee in a sales role who wasn’t achieving. We worked with them to collate the evidence and helped them populate a Performance Improvement Plan which they shared with the individual.

Improvements were not made to the required standard so the client asked for us to support with formal proceedings.

A first written warning was issued and at this stage, the employee went off sick claiming work related stress.

We made contact with the individual to advise that we must discuss the matter with them and to confirm that Statutory Sick Pay would be paid, not full company sick pay.

The individual resigned and did not bring a claim as a full and thorough process had been followed.

Frequently Asked Questions

With disciplinary it’s a case of ‘won’t do’ whereas with capability it is ‘can’t do’. The process follows the same formal sanctions; written warning, final written warning and dismissal but clear objectives need to be set out to help the individual improve.

It may be that the person has been absent from work for a long period of time and is showing no signs of a return, or, they have mentioned that some part of their role is impacting on their health.

It is imperative that you get Occupational Health involved to understand the full extent of the problem. Mint HR can assist with this process.

Yes, you must follow the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and you must start off with a written warning then final written warning before dismissal. It’s not like disciplinary where you can move to a higher sanction if the matter is serious or if it’s classed as gross misconduct.

The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) should be revisited and the employee needs to be given a chance to respond. Fully consider any mitigating circumstances or any further requests for support.

Yes, employees have the right to appeal any formal sanction. Generally, we would want them to provide clear rationale for that appeal such as new information has come to light or they feel there was an error in the process.

Even without this, if an appeal is requested it should be heard and ideally by someone higher up the managerial chain. This isn’t always easy within small businesses and that’s where Mint can definitely help.

Yes, an employee has the right to be accompanied at a formal capability meeting. This can be a colleague or trade union representative. This right is known as “the right to be accompanied” and applies to both grievance and disciplinary hearings.