Engineering teams need team members that perform to their best ability day in and day out in order to develop new software products. Nearly everyone wants to perform well, especially engineers. However, there may be low performers on any engineering team. This could drag down the performance of the entire engineering team, which could lead to the development of inferior software products.

Organizations cannot afford to carry low performers on their engineering teams. No manager wants to fire a lower-performing engineer; they would rather improve their performance. Learning how to manage low performers is a valuable skill that every manager should have. Managers should first understand the costs of consistent low-performing engineers.

The Costs of Low Performers

Engineers who are not performing to the best of their abilities are costly to any organization. Low performers on your engineering team are not only a headache to management, but can affect the performance of the rest of your team.

Culture

Impacts on your organization’s culture could be the biggest cost of low performers. Other team members could be resentful of the low performer. Team members may have to pick up the slack of the low-performing team member and fix their mistakes. Employee morale could be impacted by the presence of low performers on your engineering team. Eagle Hill Consulting surveyed more than 1,700 professionals across various industries to look into how low performers hurt organizations.

68% of survey respondents said that low performers lowered overall workplace morale. 44% of respondents said that low performers increased the amount of work high performers had to take on. The survey also highlighted that employees felt that management and leadership spent more time managing low performers, which took time away from more important tasks. All in all, low performers may negatively impact organizational culture.

“No company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” - Jack Welch

Lack of Innovation

Innovation is key to developing the next great software product. New ideas can help your organization stand out from the competition and capture market share. Low performers may hurt your team’s ability to innovate. Your engineering team may not be pushing the boundaries of what is possible when there are low performers present.

The Eagle Hill Consulting survey found that 54% of respondents believed that low performers contributed to a lack of initiative and motivation. 39% of respondents also believed that bringing in replacements for low performers would also bring new ideas and approaches. Your engineering team may not have the motivation and skill set needed to create the next innovative software product.

Causes of Low Performance

There are a number of reasons why an engineer may not be performing up to standard.

If you are looking to improve poorly performing engineers, then you need to understand the root cause of the performance issue.

Poorly Communicated Expectations

Poor communication can result in misunderstandings that affect employee performance. Your engineering team should have a full understanding of what is expected of them in both the short and long term. The engineer may not even be aware that they are not performing up to standard.

Managers may need to reevaluate how they give employees feedback. Gallup found that only 26% of employees receive feedback that helps them do better work. Managers need to fully engage and understand their employees to give feedback that enables low performers to improve.

Employee Engagement

Keeping your engineering team engaged is key to developing great software products. That is not always easy to accomplish. According to Gallup, only 36% of employees in the United States are engaged in the workplace. If your engineering team does not feel connected to the mission of your company, they may have difficulty staying engaged with their work. This could lead to performance issues.

Lack of Skills

Some team members may not have all of the necessary skills and experience to adequately perform in their roles. This lack of skills could lead to performance issues. Certain skill gaps can be closed through training. Managers will have to assess whether the skill gap is too large to be closed in a reasonable time frame.

Personal Issues

Engineers on your team could be affected by circumstances that occur outside of your organization. When engineers are struggling with personal issues in their lives, these issues could affect their performance. This issue may be more difficult to remedy, as management may not be able to directly control the situation.

There are other factors that can play a role in the performance of your engineering team. Managers should consider all options and communicate clearly and effectively with their low performers to find the root cause of their performance issues.

How To Manage Low Performers on an Engineering Team

There are many ways that managers can improve the performance of engineers who are not contributing enough to the team. Managers will find that certain strategies may work for some low performers, while certain strategies work for other low performers. Managers should take their time to carefully consider which strategy will resonate with low performers on their team.

Assign a Mentor

Some employees will benefit from the support of a mentor. Mentors are usually experienced employees, managers, and executives that help guide the development of less experienced employees. Assigning a mentor or coach to a low performer will show the employee that the company has a vested interest in their personal development and success.

Mentors have the knowledge, skills, and experience to help improve low-performer engagement and productivity. The mentor could even be a high performer on the same team. The low-performing engineer could learn best practices from the high performer and implement some of the tactics and skills to drive their performance.

Coach Your Low Performer

Simply telling your low performer what to do will likely not improve their performance in the long term. Coaching your engineering team, instead of bossing them around, is an effective way to manage low performers. Similar to how athletes need expert coaching to succeed, software engineers also need coaching to reach their full potential. Coaching your low performers involves engaging them and providing them with what they need to succeed.

Managers who coach are able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of low performers and leverage them to improve team performance. This involves giving accurate and helpful feedback. Coaching helps firms maintain their competitive position in the marketplace by improving team performance.

There are a number of real-world examples of the effectiveness of coaching in the workplace. A study looked at the effects of executive coaching on 31 managers in a US health agency. The managers received eight weeks of one-on-one coaching that involved goal setting, collaborative problem solving, feedback, and more. Manager productivity improved by 88% by the end of the eight weeks. Coaching is an effective way for managers to improve the performance of their low performers.

“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.” - Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot.

Training and Development

Training and development are needed to improve the performance of any engineer. Managers need to evaluate the resources that they offer their engineering teams. Employees may not have access to the training and development resources they need to improve their performance. Managers should ensure that low performers have access to the tools and resources they need to meet expectations.

Purchasing a certain training or development course will likely be less expensive than having to replace the low performer. Work with your engineering team to identify resources that can be used to improve not only the performance of the low-performing engineers but the entire team as well.

Fire Lower Performers

If managers do not believe that they can improve the performance of an engineer, they may consider firing the engineer. It may be tempting for organizations to get rid of low performers on an engineering team. However, that may be more of a headache than it is worth.

Firing and replacing a low performer could be costlier than attempting to improve their performance. According to the Center for American Progress, the cost of turning over a highly skilled job can be as high as 213% of an employee’s salary. Engineers are highly skilled positions, so it will likely cost more to replace their position.

There are other potential downsides to getting rid of a low-performing engineer. Firing an engineer on a close-knit team could also have reciprocations on the team’s morale. Low-performing engineers could have tribal knowledge that would be lost when they left the organization. It could take their replacement weeks or months to get back to where they were.

If you spend a significant amount of time and effort working with the low performers and they still do not show any progress, then it may be time to let them go. You can then bring in a fresh face that has the enthusiasm and skills to contribute to your team. As difficult as firing a low performer is, sometimes it may be the only path forward.

Improving the performance of low performers is a difficult, but rewarding task. Engineering teams can develop exceptional software products if all team members are contributing to the project.