Employee Woes

[Fred Weiss]

When our main business was wholesale vinyl lettering and logos to the trade and we began to hire people, we used a test from a company named Wonderlic. It allowed us to identify the applicants who had the best spelling, language and math skills along with basic problem solving and proofing. In hindsight, it was one of the best things we ever did. Choosing people with better skill sets allowed us to have far less production problems, better morale, no turnover, better profits, happier customers and less stress. The rule we established was that mistakes were acceptable but that letting them go out the door was not.

Whatever the reasons are for this employee's mistakes, it seems obvious that she is not the right person to be doing data entry or sign setups. You need to change her duties or terminate her. Either way you should hire someone new who is qualified to do the work she is not doing correctly.

 

[GWSigns]

Interesting thread to me as I am the replacement here, for your employees "twin".

I cannot tell you how many errors, spelling and otherwise I have corrected and danced around since I have been here.

I cannot even find files for the invoices and jobs that were done last year.

When I walked in there were sloppy handwritten labels on file drawers - in the front office of a sign business - viewable by customers - seriously?

There are people who have great attention to detail and there are those who don't see the point in it.

It appears to me, from what you say, she is in the latter group.

I had a summer trainee in my previous job who could get absolutely nothing right and we spent the entire time running behind her cleaning up.
In her last week with us, we were all frustrated and decided to have her help our packing guy.
She bloomed and produced like you would not beleive doing that.
Had we only known, or sat down and asked her what her interests were, we could have had a productive and stress free summer while building her skills and confidence.

Long story to share this:

Have a heart to heart with her, not so much a raking over the coals, but a "this is what we need" and "this is what we see" sort of talk.
Have her do some self examination and reflection as well.
If you let her know her job is seriously on the line, perhaps she will put forth more effort and/or concern.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Marlene]

is it just one or two out of how many that she entered? people are not machines and they do make errors. if it is about 50/50 for her data entry erros, then you have a problem. talk to her about it and tell her what you told us meaning she is helpful and you want to keep her on and add data entry to her tasks. the problem is that when she makes errors it is like not having the job done at all and there's no sense in having her do it. then in a formal memo, have the date the subject and a time line you set for her to improve and if not, then her services may not be needed for as many hours. you explained it well in your posts and we got the problem so try that with her

 

[fresh]

So I talked to her, explained that she needs to be more consistent, pay attention to what she is doing, etc.

She didn't make any excuses, just agreed that she should pay more attention. I asked her to let me know if there was anything we could do to help her... She said no and understands what we need and expect from her.

I really, really hope this is the end of the conversation.

 

[Marlene]

She didn't make any excuses, just agreed that she should pay more attention

sounds like she's a keeper. no excuses is a big deal

 

[Gino]

Good luck... and here's hoping you don't need to re-visit this thread for an update of any kind.

 

[ProWraps]

time will tell for both you and her. and in the same regard, i wish you both the best. hopefully it will turn around and everyone wins.