Marnie E. Green

Inheritance Surprise!

Has this ever happened to you?  You inherit an employee who has a history of performance challenges, and the previous supervisor has not addressed and/or documented the behaviors.  Here are some practices to avoid the "inheritance surprise."

Have you ever received the "inheritance surprise?"  When it comes to employee performance, supervisors inherit employees in two ways:  when the supervisor is new to the work group or when the employee is new to the supervisor.  Inheriting employees is a fact of supervisory life.  The inheritance experience can be either positive or dreadful, depending on how the employee's previous supervisor managed the employee's performance.  When supervisors "pass the buck" they create the "inheritance surprise."

Has this ever happened to you?  You inherit an employee who has a history of performance challenges, and the previous supervisor has not addressed and/or documented the behaviors.  As a result, you are "starting from scratch" with the employee--unable to use any performance examples from the past to help the employee improve their performance now.  The employee may have been a poor performer for some time but no one has ever discussed the issue with them.  Now you are the one expected to address the situation.

You can avoid the inheritance surprise by following these simple practices:

1. Discuss performance issues with employees when the issues arise.  Don't wait for a "good time" to raise a concern.  There is never a better time than now. 
2. Document the discussions and agreements you have with the employee in your working file. 
3. If your organization's policies allow it, pass your working file to the employee's new supervisor when the employee leaves your work unit. 
4. When you inherit a new employee, review the notes created by the previous supervisor.  You may also want to look at the employee's past performance evaluations.  If there were performance challenges in the employee's history, discuss those with the employee immediately to establish common ground and a plan for moving forward productively. 
5. Have an "expectations conversation" with all new employees as soon as you begin working together.

We can eliminate the "inheritance surprise" by practicing effective performance management.  When you do a good job of managing employee performance, you benefit, the employee benefits, the organization benefits, and so does the supervisor who follows you.

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