Beyond training: Diagnosing problems with employee performance

Managers often confront problems with worker behavior or job performance. Yet solving those problems is not a topic in business education, and even MBA holders (and HR practitioners!) have not been given instruction on how to diagnose problems with human performance and how to find cost-effective solutions to those problems. Often managers, since they have not been properly trained, will confused symptoms and signs with root causes (example: “turnover is our problem!”—yet turnover is a symptom and not a root cause.) In this session, learn ways to separate symptoms from root causes and diagnose what causes problems with worker performance. Find ways to solve those problems.

• Terms and Concepts
• The Importance of Diagnosing Worker Performance Problems
• Describing and Applying a Step-by-Step Model to Diagnose and Solve Worker Performance Problems

Choosing the wrong solutions to human performance problems is the same as malpractice in medicine. If medical doctors treat the pain rather than the cause of the pain, they will be the focus of malpractice suits. But managers often mistake symptoms for root causes. The result is management malpractice. It can result in lawsuits for improper decisions about worker employment, engagement issues, turnover, and many other negative consequences. Avoid those problems by attending this workshop.

Any manager and those working in any industry will find this session useful. It can also be useful for HR practitioners/managers.

William J. Rothwell, Ph.D., SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPLP Fellow is President of Rothwell & Associates, Inc. He has worked in HR for more than 40 years and has also worked as a consultant for more than 50 multinational corporations--including Motorola China, General Motors, Ford, and many others. In 2012 he earned ASTD’s prestigious Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award, and in 2013 ASTD honored him by naming him as a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) Fellow. (ASTD is now called ATD.) In 2014 he was given the Asia-Pacific International Personality Brandlaureate Award.

He has authored, coauthored, edited or coedited 115 books since 1987. His recent books since 2017 include Virtual Coaching to Improve Group Relationships: Process Consultation Reimagined (Routledge, 2021), The Essential Human Resource Guide for Small Business and Start Ups (Society for Human Resource Management, 2020); Increasing Learning and Development’s Impact Through Accreditation (Palgrave, 2020); Workforce Development: Guidelines for Community College Professionals, 2nd ed. (Rowman-Littlefield, 2020); Human Performance Improvement: Building Practitioner Performance, 3rd ed. (Routledge, 2018);  Innovation Leadership (Routledge, 2018), Evaluating Organization Development: How to Ensure and Sustain the Successful Transformation (CRC Press, 2017), Marketing Organization Development Consulting: A How-To Guide for OD Consultants (CRC Press, 2017), Assessment and Diagnosis for Organization Development: Powerful Tools and Perspectives for the OD practitioner (CRC Press, 2017). He also authored such books as The Leader’s Daily Role in Talent Management (2015), Effective Succession Planning, 5th ed. (2015), and Becoming an Effective Mentoring Leader (2013).