How Do You Handle 'Unconsciously Incompetent' Employees When Termination Isn't an Option?

Suppose you are an HR professional at a company and you have some employees who are 'Unconsciously Incompetent'. Now, you need to decide whether to provide training for them regarding their performance development. The condition is that you cannot terminate them.

Your question has its answer... If you can't sack them, then train them to become consciously competent! However, you need to explain the term 'Unconsciously Incompetent' to seek better responses at the forum.

For an HR Manager of an organization to willfully label their people as 'unconsciously incompetent' brings the competence of that HR Manager front and center into the spotlight. I would be questioning their credentials both as an HR Manager and what qualifies them to denigrate others before I set off on a wild goose chase.

Because the unconsciously incompetent cannot put on an act. That is why they are called unconsciously incompetent. Otherwise, they would be termed Consciously Incompetent.

So now, my question is back to the HR Manager: why was their unsuitability for the position not identified at the recruitment stage? Is it because the employees are Consciously Incompetent, or the HR Manager is Unconsciously Incompetent?

I think Hussain & Gaurav Sareen have raised valid points that need careful and serious rethinking at your end.

Coming to the current situation, one way to handle or correct such a category of people is to create situations where they 'SEE' for themselves the damage or repercussions of their actions. No amount of 'telling, teaching, or training' will help without them actually observing or seeing the consequences of their 'unthought' actions—since they are more prone to ignore others' advice, however well-meaning or well-intentioned.

In a nutshell, make them 'realize themselves' through whatever teaching or training you wish to give. Without this aspect embedded into your whole effort, I don't think it will achieve the desired purpose.

All the Best.

Regards, TS

Thank you to everyone for commenting on that. Hussain Zulfikar, 'Unconsciously Incompetent' means someone who is not able as well as not willing to do anything.

Gaurav Sareen, many thanks for your comment. You have asked about the HR manager—can't you see a situation like that where an employee has been working for many years and was performing very well, but in the last few months, somehow, their performance is not up to the mark?

Situation 2: Suppose there is bulk hiring going on, for example, in a BPO company as it often happens. And the HR manager chooses a candidate based on a halo effect from that candidate's past.

CiteHr Members, please consider those situations and comment on them.

Regards,
Sandipan