Hi All,
We have an employee who - when we recruited him last year - told us that he had a mild form of autism. He was recruited initially to a fixed term post (because we weren't sure if we needed the post past six months - not related to his disability) but this was then made permanent. AT the point he was made permanent, he was trained to do the full job which didn't happen initially due to the fixed term nature of his post.
His manager has come to me his week saying that his output since we recruited him has been consistently below average. We have had conversations with him about speed and he has committed to improving but this hasn't happened. His probation was passed with a note about his output and speed. He passed his probation at the same time that his post was made permanent (and there is a question there or me as to whether we should have extended his probation period). It wasn't highlighted to me as a problem at that point and in fact he was described a a good employee who has great attention to detail - and as he works in an assembly department, this was a great asset. He is now described as someone who is often distant and isn't achieving results. He was moved to a different part of the assembly team to see if that helped but it hasn't. There is a belief that his autism may be the reason for this issue.
So I now have lots of questions for the manager regarding what we have done to help him improve, what have we said in terms of how well he is/isn't doing etc etc
I am of the view that we carry out the same kind of performance management plan as we would for anyone else, explaining our concerns and asking for his feedback as to why he feels his output is low. Also explaining our expectations and agreeing a plan for a way forward. Then asking him how he feels about this and whether he feels it is achievable. I would take the view that unless he tells us that his disability is impacting on his performance, we have to assume that it isn't. We can only act on this and consider adjustments if he offers this as a possible reason. Does this sound right? Have I missed anything?
Thank you
Jo