Performance & Accountability

Managing performance isn't about catching people doing something wrong. It's about helping your team succeed, setting clear expectations, and addressing issues early before they become bigger problems.

But here's the reality: not every conversation is easy. Sometimes you need to document concerns, issue warnings, or make the difficult decision to let someone go. When those moments come, you need a clear process that's fair, consistent, and protects your business.

Whether you're coaching a promising employee who's struggling or navigating a termination, we help you handle performance and accountability with clarity and confidence.

As a small business owner or manager, you're juggling everything: serving customers, managing schedules, handling payroll, and somehow also being responsible for performance management. Most days, you don't have time to think about documentation until something goes wrong.

And in small businesses, the stakes are high:

We believe people are your most valuable resource, not replaceable cogs. Most employees want to do well. When they're struggling, the right support at the right time can turn things around.

But we also know that accountability matters. When someone isn't meeting expectations despite coaching and support, continuing to tolerate poor performance hurts your good employees, damages morale, and puts your business at risk.

Early Intervention & Coaching: The best performance management happens before formal discipline. We help you have clear, direct conversations early when you notice attendance problems, attitude issues, work quality concerns, or policy violations. Often, a well-structured coaching conversation can resolve issues before they escalate.

Documentation That Protects You: When informal coaching isn't enough, documentation becomes essential. We guide you on what to document, how to write it, and when to escalate. Proper documentation protects you legally and creates a clear record if the situation worsens.

Progressive Discipline That's Fair: We help you implement a structured approach: verbal coaching with notes, written warning for continued issues, final written warning when employment is at risk, and termination if needed. Steps may be skipped for serious violations (theft, violence, harassment, safety risks), but most situations benefit from a progressive approach that gives employees a chance to improve.

Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs): Sometimes an employee is trying but genuinely struggling to meet job requirements. A PIP provides structure: clear expectations, specific goals, timeline for improvement, regular check-ins, and available support. PIPs aren't punitive; they're developmental. They work when both parties commit to success.

Terminations Done Right: When someone needs to be let go, we help you do it legally, safely, and professionally. This includes preparing termination documentation, planning the termination meeting, handling final pay and benefits correctly, retrieving company property, and minimizing legal risk. We can be present for terminations when needed or coach you through conducting them yourself.

Attendance & Punctuality: Chronic lateness, no-call/no-shows, pattern absences (always out on weekends/holidays), abusing sick time. We help you create and enforce attendance policies fairly while accommodating legitimate medical needs.

Work Quality & Productivity: Not completing assigned tasks, making repeated mistakes despite training, working too slowly or inefficiently, and cutting corners or ignoring procedures. We help you set measurable standards and document when they're not met.

Attitude & Professionalism: Negativity that affects the team, gossiping or creating drama, disrespectful behavior toward managers or coworkers, and resistance to feedback or instruction. These "soft" issues are often the hardest to address, but they're critical to workplace culture.

Policy Violations: Dress code violations, cell phone use during work, taking unauthorized breaks, violating safety procedures, and not following cash handling or security protocols. Clear policies + consistent enforcement = fewer problems.

Customer Service Issues: Rude or unprofessional behavior with customers, poor communication, not following service standards, and complaints from clients or guests. In hospitality, customer-facing performance issues need immediate attention.

Letting problems slide doesn't make them go away. It teaches other employees that standards don't matter, drives your best people away, and creates liability when you finally do take action.

When you work with Seneca HR on performance and accountability issues, you get:

Real-Time Coaching: Call or email when something happens and you're not sure how to handle it. We talk you through the situation and help you decide on next steps.

Templates & Tools: Performance documentation templates, PIP frameworks, termination checklists, and attendance tracking systems. You don't have to create these from scratch.

Direct Support: We can attend difficult conversations with you, conduct investigations when needed, review your documentation before you deliver it, and coach managers on how to have tough conversations.

Legal Protection: We make sure your actions comply with Maine employment law, are documented properly to defend against claims, are applied consistently across all employees, and balance employee rights with business needs.