Write down the specific steps the employee will take to solve problems. Employees may not know what you have available to help them, such as seminars, refresher courses, books, and so on. So you must go into an interview with your own ideas about how to help an employee who has performance problems. If an employee won't address the problems or can't come up with actions to help solve them, then you offer a course of action and set the goals. Don't give high ratings unless people deserve them .
Many managers avoid giving honest evaluations because they fear confrontations.
But when the manager avoids tackling problems, the employee's performance doesn't improve, and the business suffers. If you must fire an employee due to poor performance, be sure you have written performance evaluations that note deficiencies and what you did to help the employee improve. You should also have documentation that shows that the individual's performance did not get better. Without such a file, you leave your business open to a wrongful-discharge lawsuit. Don't discuss pay and promotion during a performance review.