Employee weaknesses, better known as areas for improvement, are general aspects of an employee's performance that fall short of expectations. These are usually stated as strengths that need to be improved. For example, you wouldn't say that an employee is close-minded but rather that they need to work to be more open-minded. The following are common employee weaknesses.Accuracy | Ambition |
Analysis | Assertiveness |
Attention to Detail | Budget Management |
Business Impact | Candor |
Compliance to Policy | Conflict Resolution |
Cooperative Work | Customer Service |
Dealing With Criticism | Decision Making |
Diligence | Engagement |
Engaging Customers | Enthusiasm |
Friendliness | Generating Revenue |
IT Skills | Influencing |
Knowledge Areas | Learning |
Managing Commitments | Managing Costs |
Meeting Deadlines | Meeting Management |
Motivation | Negotiation |
Open-mindedness | Organization |
Passion | Persistence |
Personal Resilience | Politeness |
Presentations | Prioritization |
Problem Solving | Productivity |
Professionalism | Project Management |
Public Speaking | Risk Management |
Risk Taking | Self-Direction |
Service Quality | Solving Customer Problems |
Stakeholder Management | Supporting Others |
Teamwork | Time Management |
Turnaround Time | Unfinished Work |
Verbal Communication | Visibility |
Visual Communication | Win-win Thinking |
Work Quality | Work Throughput |
Examples
Weaknesses are typically stated as a shortfall of a talent, skill, knowledge area or character trait. For example:Lacked passion and commitment for solving customer problems.
Where an employee is high performing, weaknesses are carefully stated as minor suggestions for improvement using constructive criticism.Achieved high productivity but took on several low value action items that wasted your talents. Consider pursuing time management techniques such as commitment management to further improve your productivity.
Low Performance
Low performance occurs when an employee isn't meeting the minimum expectations for their role and assignments such that their employer takes action such as putting the employee on a performance improvement plan. The following are the types of thing that may be viewed as low performance.It is only fair to the employee to communicate low performance clearly and unambiguously without using flowery terms or indirect language. For example, "failed to meet key deadlines" as opposed to "work to enhance your time management approach."Areas for Improvement
Areas for improvement are employee weaknesses or opportunities for an employee to do better in their work. These do not imply low performance and are stated in a positive way. The following are common areas for improvement.Discussion
As an employee, if you are asked to document your own areas for improvement it is common to choose things that are "nice to have" but beyond the expectations for your role. For example, a software developer might choose public speaking as an area for improvement where this isn't required of their role but might be helpful.Next: Low Performance