Burnley - Workplace Needs Assessment 

When a Performance Issue Turns Out to Be Something Else

A Burnley employer in the healthcare sector contacted me because they were considering starting a formal performance management process with an employee who was struggling at work. 

There were genuine concerns about their performance, so this wasn't a case of simply saying, “They're neurodivergent, therefore we shouldn't manage their performance.”  But there was a question about whether the employer fully understood what was behind the difficulties. Rather than moving straight into a formal process, the employer decided to pause and commissioned me to carry out a Workplace Needs Assessment.

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I spent time understanding the employee's role, their strengths, what they were good at, where they were experiencing difficulties and what barriers were getting in the way.  I also considered the manager's perspective, because a Workplace Needs Assessment isn't just about asking the employee what they want. It needs to look at the actual job and what is happening from both sides. 

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The employee's feedback afterwards was particularly important to me. They said they felt truly listened to and not judged, and that the assessment and report had properly articulated things they had been trying to explain for years.

The assessment identified a number of practical adjustments that could help the employee work more effectively, presented to the business in a thorough report in an easy to understand format.  These were specific to the individual and their role rather than a generic list of things that might help a neurodivergent employee.  The result was that the employer had a much better understanding of what was happening and could put appropriate support in place before escalating the situation through a formal performance process. 

It also meant they weren't unnecessarily risking the loss of a talented employee because of a problem that may have been partly caused by barriers that hadn't previously been understood.  For me, that's one of the most important parts of this work.  A Workplace Needs Assessment isn't about lowering standards.  It's about asking whether someone has the right conditions and support to meet those standards in the first place.​

If you're facing a similar situation and you're unsure how to support a neurodivergent employee,  book a free discovery call.  Sometimes the best time to look at that isn't after the performance process has started.  It's before.