In fast-paced, target-driven environments like recruitment, the cost of underperforming employees can be significant. Whether it’s missed revenue, damaged client relationships, or the knock-on impact on team morale, underperforming at work doesn’t just affect one consultant — it affects the whole desk, team, and bottom line.
As recruitment sector specialists, we work with over 100 firms, and we know that managing underperformance is one of the trickiest leadership challenges you’ll face. From understanding the cause of poor performance at work to offering the right kind of incentives for improvement, there’s a lot to consider when putting together a successful performance improvement plan.
In this guide, we share our advice on how to deal with underperforming employees, including how to identify them, how to motivate them, and what you can do to improve their work.
The Impact of Underperforming Recruiters
Before jumping into how to manage underperformance, it’s essential to understand the wider consequences within a recruitment setting. Underperformance isn’t just a quiet drop in billings; it disrupts team dynamics, client relationships, and ultimately, business growth.
Missed Targets and Reduced Productivity
In recruitment, productivity isn’t just about being busy, it’s about delivering revenue. An underperforming recruiter may still be active on the CRM, making calls, and attending meetings, but if placements aren’t happening, the commercial impact is real.
Whether they’re failing to convert candidates, not generating new leads, or lacking urgency in closing deals, the gap between effort and outcome can quietly erode profitability. Worse still, other team members often have to compensate, sharing leads, stepping in to salvage accounts, or spending time mentoring, which takes them away from their own targets.
Damaged Team Morale and Performance
Recruitment teams thrive on momentum and peer motivation. But when one consultant consistently underperforms, it creates friction. Targets are missed, bonuses are affected, and frustrations grow.
High-performing recruiters often feel demotivated if poor performance at work goes unaddressed. They may question leadership’s standards or fairness, and in worst-case scenarios, their own productivity may dip as they disengage from the wider team. Culture takes a hit, especially in smaller firms where every desk counts.
Underperforming employees can also be a symptom of misalignment. If someone is on the wrong desk, no longer believes in the business, or feels disconnected from their manager, their attitude can subtly influence those around them. Negativity spreads, and recruitment is a business that thrives on energy.
Client and Candidate Disengagement
Poor performance at work is visible externally, too. If a recruiter is unprepared in client meetings, submits irrelevant candidates, or shows poor follow-up, relationships start to weaken. Clients lose confidence and may begin to question the calibre of your wider team, not just one individual.
Recruitment is a relationship business, and one consultant’s poor delivery can cost you hard-won client trust. In a competitive market, clients have plenty of choice. If they feel they’re not getting value, they’ll walk.
Similarly, candidates disengage quickly when communication is slow or inconsistent. Underperformance often results in lost exclusivity, reputational damage, and diminished repeat business.
Higher Turnover and Increased Hiring Costs
Managing underperforming employees often leads to difficult decisions, especially when you’ve invested in onboarding, training, and desk development. Letting someone go isn’t just emotionally challenging; it comes with financial consequences, too.
The cost of replacing underperformers adds up quickly:
- Wasted investment in salaries, commissions, tech licences
- Time lost on internal training and management
- Further costs associated with rehiring, onboarding, and training
- Revenue gap from an underperforming desk
And if poor performance isn’t addressed early? You may find yourself losing good people instead.
Spotting an Underperforming Employee
In recruitment, the signs of an underperforming employee can be both obvious and deceptively subtle. It’s not always about someone openly missing targets — sometimes, it’s hidden behind activity that looks productive on the surface.
The key is knowing what to look for and asking the right questions before jumping to conclusions. Here are some of the most common indicators that a recruiter may be underperforming, even if they appear to be “busy”.
Missed Revenue and Activity Targets
Consistently falling short of monthly or quarterly billing targets is a clear red flag for an underperforming employee. But equally important are the activity metrics that sit beneath the revenue line:
- Low CV submissions to live roles
- Fewer candidate registrations
- Limited outbound calls or client BD
- Sparse interview bookings or pipeline movement
Sometimes, a recruiter will hit one or two numbers but fall short on overall outcomes. That’s often a sign they’re avoiding the hard work, like business development or candidate control, and need closer support or challenge.
Decline in Work Quality
Poor attention to detail is a common sign of disengagement or capability gaps, and often appears when identifying an underperforming employee.
You might notice:
- Repetitive CV formatting issues or typos
- Candidate write-ups that lack insight or accuracy
- Misaligned submissions that don’t match client briefs
- Poorly prepared candidates ahead of interviews
This not only wastes client time, but it reflects badly on your brand and signals that the recruiter isn’t fully invested in the process.
High Drop-Off and Fall-Through Rates
If a recruiter is placing candidates but seeing a pattern of quick drop-outs, rejected offers, or counteroffers not handled well, it’s a warning sign of underperformance at work. High fall-off rates often reflect weak qualification, poor candidate control, or poor client expectation management, all of which point to poor performance beneath the surface.
Negative Client or Candidate Feedback
Unprompted complaints or concerns from clients or candidates — about communication, responsiveness, or quality — are invaluable indicators. Clients rarely vocalise issues unless they’re frustrated, so if feedback surfaces, take it seriously and investigate promptly.
Even casual comments like “they’re a bit slow to respond” or “I’m not sure they really understood the brief” can signal that something’s off. These are early signs that service quality is slipping and that dealing with an underperforming employee might be required.
Low Energy and Presence
Recruitment is high energy, and while everyone has quieter weeks, consistent low engagement is noticeable. Watch for:
- Frequently arriving late or clock-watching
- Lack of contribution in meetings
- Absences or sick days that spike around performance reviews
- Unwillingness to collaborate or share leads
This could be caused by burnout, loss of motivation, or a personal issue. Either way, it needs attention before it becomes embedded.
Minimal Use of Systems and Tools
Strong recruiters use your CRM to drive results. If someone is barely logging calls, not updating candidate pipelines, or using spreadsheets instead of the database, that’s a problem.
Sometimes, it also means they’ve given up on the process and are just going through the motions. But failing to use the right systems and tools shows a lack of discipline and limits your visibility as a leader, so is an important sign of underperformance at work that you need to look out for.
How Do You Manage Underperforming Employees?
Managing underperformance in recruitment is rarely straightforward. Consultants are often confident, persuasive and outwardly “busy”, which can make it harder to confront performance issues without creating defensiveness.
Add in the complexity of billing targets, market challenges, and personality-driven desks, and performance management in this sector becomes more nuanced. But it’s essential to tackle it head-on. Left unaddressed, underperformance costs your business money, time, and team morale.
It’s essential to remember that underperformance is often a symptom, not the root cause. Skill gaps, personal struggles, burnout, unclear expectations, or misaligned incentives can all contribute.
Whilst deciding how to manage underperforming employees, remember that the goal isn’t to catch someone out, it’s to understand what’s really going on so you can intervene effectively. A non-confrontational check-in can often reveal more than a formal PIP (Performance Improvement Plan).
Start from a place of empathy and curiosity:
- “I’ve noticed a few things that are out of character — is everything okay?”
- “I’ve got a sense that something’s shifted recently. How are you finding the role?”
These questions can open the door to meaningful conversations — and ultimately, more effective solutions.
Here’s a structured approach tailored to recruitment leaders who are managing underperforming employees.
Identify the Root Cause
Start with a diagnostic mindset. Ask yourself: Why has this person stopped performing?
There are many potential reasons:
- Misalignment with their market or desk
- Lack of clarity around expectations or KPIs
- Skill gaps in sourcing, BD or candidate management
- Frustration with internal systems, commission structures or leadership
- Burnout, boredom or mental health concerns
- Personal issues outside of work affecting focus or energy
In recruitment, where confidence is everything, underperformers may not be forthcoming with the real reason that they’ve been underperforming at work, especially if they’re worried about job security. You may need to probe gently and provide reassurance that this is a conversation to help them succeed, not to catch them out.
Clarify Role Expectations
Once the root issue is explored, move quickly to clarify what the expectations of the employee’s role are. Underperforming consultants often lose sight of what success actually looks like, so you can use this opportunity to reset expectations.
Recap:
- Revenue targets
- Candidate KPIs (e.g. CVs sent, interviews booked, offers made)
- BD activity levels
- Client service standards and turnaround times
Don’t assume these are clear just because they’re in a commission structure. Walk through the numbers, the behaviours, and the standards you expect and use real data from top performers to illustrate what “good” looks like.
You should also make the consequences of continued poor performance at work transparent. Outline the steps of your internal performance process, from informal chats to formal reviews, so there’s no ambiguity. This isn’t about threats, but about fairness and accountability.
Create a Structured Improvement Plan
If the consultant wants to improve, you now need to put structure behind the intention.
This plan should be:
- Specific – target 2–3 clear areas for improvement
- Measurable – use metrics tied to KPIs or billings
- Time-bound – 30, 60, or 90-day windows with review checkpoints
- Co-created – they should own their actions, not just be told what to do
You might include:
- Call coaching with a senior consultant or manager
- BD “power hours” focused on lead generation
- Candidate mapping or sourcing sessions with peer shadowing
- Regular deal reviews and pipeline forecasting
Make sure both of you sign off on the plan and document the process. This isn’t just about legal defensibility — it shows commitment and professionalism.
Provide Support — But Expect Engagement
Improvement to recover from underperformance at work takes effort on both sides. Your role is to remove roadblocks and offer tools, but it’s not your job to carry the employee over the line.
Support might include:
- Access to market data or new tools
- Warm leads or help unlocking dormant clients
- Hands-on coaching or training refreshers
- A reduced desk while they rebuild their pipeline
But the consultant must own their recovery. If there’s no effort, no follow-through, or excuses start to mount, it’s a clear indicator of disengagement.
Hold firm: support must be matched by action.
Set Regular Check-Ins and Track Progress
Accountability is key when understanding how to manage underperforming staff. One conversation won’t fix performance; you need regular check-ins built into the improvement plan.
At each check-in:
- Review progress against KPIs or milestones
- Give clear, honest feedback
- Adjust goals or tactics if needed
- Reinforce support — but stay firm on standards
This helps build momentum and gives you a consistent record of performance. It also ensures there are no surprises if the consultant doesn’t improve and you need to escalate.
Check-ins also offer space to praise improvement. Even small wins should be recognised; these boost morale and help rebuild confidence, especially for previously high-performing consultants who’ve lost their way.
Know When to Walk Away
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, improvement doesn’t happen and you need to know how to get rid of an employee who is not performing. If someone isn’t engaging, refuses feedback, or is simply not right for the business anymore, it may be time to exit.
Dragging it out helps no one. Your team will notice, your culture will suffer, and your energy will be drained.
When ending the relationship:
- Be direct but professional
- Acknowledge the effort (if any) made to improve
- Focus on future fit: “this just isn’t the right role/market/business for you right now”
- Offer a clean, respectful exit where possible
Often, underperformers feel relieved, especially if they’ve lost passion for the role but didn’t want to initiate the exit themselves.
How to Motivate Underperforming Recruiters
Not every underperforming recruiter is disengaged. Sometimes, the drive is still there, it’s just buried under pressure, rejection, or a lack of clarity.
If someone wants to improve but needs help finding the spark again, your role as a leader is to reignite that motivation.
This isn’t just about giving pep talks. Motivation in recruitment is personal, dynamic, and tightly linked to purpose. Here’s how you can help rebuild it in a meaningful, measurable way.
Find What Matters
Everyone is motivated by different things when it comes to work, whether that’s salary, progression, career status, acquiring skills, feeling challenged, or receiving rewards and incentives from their employer. In order to motivate an underperformer, work with them to identify what matters to them the most, and then incorporate that into their growth strategy.
Adapt the Role
Many underperformance issues stem from misalignment, whether that’s a recruiter in the wrong market, on a cold desk, or working a vertical they don’t understand.
Consider whether you can adapt or reposition their role:
- Move them to a market with more activity or better client relationships
- Reassign roles so they focus on delivery if they enjoy candidate engagement more than BD
- Allow for a dual desk if they’re motivated by variety
- Introduce a temporary “rescue project” (e.g. reviving dormant clients or rebuilding a specific talent pool)
These tweaks don’t have to be permanent. But showing willingness to meet people where they’re at can rebuild confidence after a period of underperformance at work and help them rediscover their value.
Praise Progress
Finally, it’s incredibly important to praise and recognise the progress that an underperforming employee has made in returning to their previous levels of performance. This is another reason why checking in is so valuable – you can reward the work that an employee has done to turn things around and encourage them to keep going, which will increase the likelihood that they’ll succeed.
Address Emotional and Mental Wellbeing
Burnout is real in recruitment, especially after a tough quarter or market shift. If underperformance is linked to stress, overwhelm or confidence loss, take it seriously.
Check in on how an underperforming employee is really feeling:
- Do they feel supported?
- Do they have the tools to succeed?
- Are they still enjoying the role?
Support might mean reducing desk pressure temporarily, signposting to external wellbeing support (e.g. via TC Group’s HR network), or just creating space for honest conversations. Don’t underestimate how much mental load impacts performance — even for your top billers.
Struggling with Underperformance in Your Team?
Whether you need help implementing a performance improvement plan, dealing with a difficult conversation, or navigating potential exits, don’t go it alone.
Recruitment Accountants is part of TC Group, a top 20 UK accountancy firm, providing a full range of accountancy, advisory and strategic services to recruitment businesses. For challenges like underperformance, we offer targeted support through HR advice and Incentive Planning — helping you manage people issues with confidence, compliance and care.
Get in touch for a confidential conversation about your team, or explore how our wider services can support your growth ambitions.
