Free webinar for small business employers

We’re holding a free webinar to hear from our small business experts, our Employer Advisory Service.

Our Employer Advisory Service staff will answer common questions we receive from small businesses.

The webinar is on Thursday 15 May 2025 at 2 pm AEST.

For more information and to register, go to our Webinars page.

Good employee management can help create a more cooperative and productive workplace.

On this page:

Get employee performance right

Use the information on this page to understand managing employee performance.

We recommend you:

  • Understand the essentials: read the information on this page to get the basics.
  • Get the full picture: use the links back to our main website if you want to know more.
  • Free and fast learning: take our free and simple online training Managing employees to develop your management skills.
  • Prevent workplace problems: see how you can avoid workplace issues building up.
  • Take the stress out: use our free guides and templates to help manage staff at your workplace.

Benefits of managing your employees well

Well-managed employees can improve your business in many ways.

Key points

  • By managing your staff in a proactive and productive way, you can:
    • improve workplace harmony
    • lower staff turnover
    • develop a workplace culture
    • make your business more successful.
  • Taking the time to develop your management skills will save you stress, time and potential problems in the future.
  • There’s free online training and tailored resources to help you upskill.

Resources and tools

Dealing with underperforming employees

Underperformance or poor performance can affect your staff and workplace’s productivity. It’s sometimes difficult to deal with but we have tips, tools and resources to help you out.

Key points

  • Underperforming employees can have a negative effect on a business, such as:
    • unhappy customers or clients
    • decreased productivity
    • high turnover
    • unmotivated and underperforming employees.
  • Poor performance can include:
    • not performing duties, or not performing them to the required standard
    • displaying negative or disruptive behaviour in the workplace
    • failing to comply with workplace policies, rules or procedures.
  • The best way to manage underperformance is to make sure it doesn't happen in the first place – communication is the key.
  • You should take steps to help prevent underperformance, such as:
    • listing behavioural expectations in position descriptions
    • addressing any issues as soon as possible
    • encouraging employees to talk to you or a manager as soon as they have concerns or issues at work.

Resources and tools

Giving warnings

It’s best practice to give employees written warnings if they are underperforming. This is so they get a fair chance to improve.

Key points

  • If you decide to give an employee a warning about their underperformance, the warning should be given in writing.
  • If you fire an employee because of underperformance, whether you gave them warnings first will be considered if they choose to lodge an unfair dismissal claim against you.
  • The Small Business Fair Dismissal Code (the Code) provides protection against any unfair dismissal claims that are lodged with the Fair Work Commission. The Fair Work Commission will rule that the dismissal was fair if the employer can provide evidence that the Code was followed before dismissing the employee.
  • Keep up communication with your employee. It’s in your interests to keep ongoing dialogue going.
  • Remember, if there’s something wrong, most people would prefer to resolve it as quickly as possible so both of you can get on with the job.

Resources and tools

Resolving workplace problems

Problems can happen in any workplace. We find that most problems can be resolved by addressing the issue in the workplace as quickly as possible.

Key points

  • If workplace problems go unchecked in the workplace, they can lead to:
    • reduced employee productivity
    • staff turnover
    • higher stress for you and your staff
    • higher business costs.
  • Good communication practices can help prevent workplace problems from happening in the first place. See Preventing workplace problems for more information.
  • Most workplace issues occur because people don’t know what the law is or because communication has broken down.
  • An effective way for you to resolve a workplace issue is to find out what the law is and then work proactively with your employee to fix the problem.
  • If you can’t resolve things in the workplace, you can use our free guides and tools to check the law, have a difficult talk or get our help when you need it.

Resources and tools

  • More information: go to our dedicated Workplace problems section to get information and advice on dealing with a workplace issue.
  • Step-by-step guides: you can also access our free guides that give instructions on how to resolve issues like underperformance, award coverage and underpaying an employee.
  • Downloadable guide: if you prefer a single guide, download our An employer's guide to fixing workplace problems (DOCX) (PDF) – it has all the information you need in one place.

More information for small business