Ask the expert: Judge not the lazy lest you be one

Identifying the varying capabilities of employees is a quality to which employers should aspire. DR MARIE WILSON, head of management and employment relations at the University of Auckland Business School and a veteran of 20 years in corporate management and small business, offers some helpful ideas.

Our lucrative blue-chip company carries quite a lot of dead wood - people who might have done well in their day but are now sitting comfortably and doing the minimum to get by. Some of them are remarkably young to be slacking off, too.

I've come from an environment where under-achievers are persuaded to leave or are performance-managed out. I know this company can afford to carry these people because it hardly has to work for its revenue, but I don't think it's good for morale or business in general.

What doesn't help is that performance reviews here are pretty soft and it doesn't appear that a poor review is much of a threat. What's your view?

Very few people are accurate judges of co-workers' total productivity or contribution.

Research suggests that we routinely over-estimate our own contribution and under-estimate that of co-workers, primarily because of our own awareness of everything that we do, and our inability to see everything that others do.

Combined with this fundamental bias in our perceptions, most people rate themselves as "above average".

You might want to check your evaluation of the performance of others with someone with a broad overview of performance in the company.

No company can afford to be complacent about performance, but most need to recognise both their top performers, and the large core of staff who are solid, mid-level performers.

A company where few people fail their performance reviews may be seen as soft, but another interpretation is that it is well-managed.

If the right people are selected, trained well and supported in doing their jobs, they should all be successful and performance reviews should be nothing to fear.

Morale issues are more likely to be affected by reviews that are threatening or unfair, or by poor communication.

If your morale is threatened because you don't feel adequately recognised and/or challenged, that is a very different matter, and one that can be tackled directly with your supervisor.

I'm in a publicly listed company which is staffed overwhelmingly by white, conservative, middle-aged males, and I can see where and how it's not necessarily good for business.

I've got some ideas about how we could redress the balance from a company-wide perspective, rather than just my department, but I'm not sure what sort of reception I would get from the chief executive were I to broach the issue.

I don't know him well enough to gauge how responsive he is to ideas or constructive criticism from outside the inner sanctum, which has not one female in its membership. I'm not quite high enough up the ladder just to drop them on him casually, either, though I would describe myself as well-respected with a long-term future here.

I also can't guarantee that in their white, male and middle-aged wisdom they will not label me as a PC/feminist/bleeding heart stirrer. I've got to work to the environment I'm in, after all.

The issue you raise is a key business issue. All businesses are competing for the best employees, and the best are often diverse in their age, ethnicity and gender.

There are reasons, however, why you may not see much diversity around you where you work.

Your first approach might be to the HR department to see if there are any projects within the company to increase diversity of employment, or to identify or assess the problem.

You may wish to work with HR staff to identify underlying problems and recommend solutions through the existing company structures. You may also wish to contact the EEO Trust. It has developed a self-assessment package for businesses and runs an annual award programme.

Send your questions to: Julie Middleton