As an employer, building and maintaining a strong workforce is critical to increasing productivity. While every member of your team will have both positive and negative qualities, you can improve upon your staff’s weaknesses through training, coaching and mentoring.

However, there are certain things that can’t be fixed. These “red flags” are negative employee traits that can’t be changed, no matter how hard you try. Observe patterns of behavior in your staff to determine what makes each person “tick.” Assume that past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior and look for these “red flag” indicators that a staffing change may be needed:

• No enthusiasm or passion for the job
• Lack of sufficient intelligence to do the job
• Lack of integrity
• Lack of energy
• Lack of ambition
• Lack of creativity
• Lack of analytical skills
• Poor follow- through skills

Does anyone on your team display these red flags? If so, you may need to replace this employee with a more professional employee. The practice of replacing your lower-performing staff members with all-star employees is known as topgrading .

Need more help assessing if it’s time for a change?

By filling out the following form, you can download “20 Red Flags to Determine if Topgrading is in Order.”