Employees Underperforming? How to Respond to These 3 Excuses. Sometimes, an employee just needs an extra jolt. Other times, you will need to pull the plug.

Companies are increasing their focus on employee retention. In fact, PayScale's 2018 Compensation Best Practices report found that 59 percent of respondents considered employee retention a "major concern" for their companies and organizations. This isn't surprising given that a revolving staff door can make it almost impossible to preserve recent organizational knowledge and keep up with projects and responsibilities.

Related: What to Do When Long-Term Employees Become Managers, and Are Bad at It

So, yes, keeping retention top of mind is smart, but sometimes a staff change is unavoidable. When you're calling the shots, firing people will almost certainly make you uncomfortable. Whether you are running a small startup or a Fortune 500, you can't hide behind other people and say the decision was out of your hands.

Then, the bigger your company gets, the harder it will be to respond in order to change quickly and effectively. While employees can grow into their roles, you shouldn't let your sense of loyalty to your current employees prevent you from making good business decisions.

It's just logical that some of your original staff members are going to be unable to keep up with the pace and to cease to bring enough value to the company. In those cases, you should maintain a realistic attitude as to when it is time to part ways. And, when those tough conversations need to happen, your sense of loyalty to your employees can be your worst enemy.

A retention reality check

In your personal life, "loyalty" generally means believing in an individual and defending him or her when that person comes under attack. When you become part of a team, however, the definition of loyalty changes.

As a leader, you need to think about your loyalty to all of your employees instead of just one person. When a team member cannot keep up or shows signs of burnout, he or she will likely require co-workers to pick up the slack. When you hold certain people to a lower standard, other employees become resentful, and the poor performer starts to drag the company down.

For example, a B2B company we worked with had a marketing employee who had been with the team from the beginning. The company had done well, and its board was pushing for accelerated growth -- which required more effective marketing. The employee was a jack-of-all-trades but couldn't keep up with increased demand. After the difficult decision was made to replace this employee with a more qualified individual, the company quickly hit stretch goals that had previously been elusive.

Often, a leader may be blind to necessary personnel changes, whether willfully or unconsciously. In either case -- if this leader is you -- the sooner you recognize the problem and take steps to address it, the better off your company will be.

3. Warning signs that signal a personnel change

It will not always be obvious, but here are three common excuses from employees that might indicate it is time for you to consider a personnel change:

1. "I don't have enough time." Work stress is prevalent across all industries, and a study from Paychex found that roughly 70 percent of those surveyed reported stress levels of at least 3 on a scale of 1 to 5. Certainly, being pressed for time doesn't help stress, either.

Related: The Founder of Panera Bread: 'I Wish I'd Fired More People'

One of your primary roles as a leader is to clearly define your employees' jobs and responsibilities. If team members struggle to keep up with their workloads, they are probably stretching themselves thin trying to help others, or putting off work to avoid accountability.

When you talk to an employee who claims to be short on time, determine what his or her current projects are and then contain them. Give this employee specific responsibilities that don't require relying on co-workers, and see how he or she meets these new expectations and goals. If the employee continues to underperform, look for a replacement, although it is not a bad idea to put out feelers for that replacement before you even have the above discussion.

2. "I cannot control this." The ability to find a solution to a work problem is an indicator of someone who "owns" the situation. This is a characteristic you need to see in employees. When I worked at Dell, we had a substantial drop in traffic and couldn't figure out why. Eventually, we discovered that our laptop batteries were catching fire. Unfortunately, you can't advertise or email your way out of a drop in traffic due to a problem like that; but you can turn to your partners in crisis communication and social media.

If you give employees all the tools necessary to solve problems and they still can't succeed, it's time to reevaluate their fit in the company. By letting them go, you ultimately keep them from stagnating. If you struggle with this concept, look toward Startups.co CEO Wil Schroter, who has said he views his company as a school for employees. When employees get to the point that they would learn better elsewhere, it is time for them to move on.

When you let go one of these employees, make sure that the high performers you do have feel appreciated. Talk to their co-workers to ensure that in the interim, everyone's roles and responsibilities are firmly established. Also, involve the rest of your employees in the subsequent hiring process so they have some control over who is named as the replacement.

3. "It wasn't me." According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, worldwide employee engagement sits at a lowly 15 percent. Employees with low engagement often have a decreased sense of responsibility for their work, which wreaks havoc on productivity and accountability.

The most toxic situation is when employees attempt to deflect their own poor performance onto surrounding team members. These individuals rarely admit fault but instead cast broad accusations in an attempt to throw co-workers under the bus. As a last-ditch effort, such employees will even question the data that illuminates their underperformance.

Tough love is the solution here. Like an unfaithful partner who'd rather talk about other people who cheat instead of his own indiscretions, the underperforming employee will try to direct the conversation away from his or her performance. But don't let that happen: Stay the course and let this employee go.

Then, during your subsequent hiring process, be mindful of the departed employee's character flaw. Ask questions about challenges each candidate faced at previous jobs. Be wary when interviewees shift blame to others or speak poorly about their previous employers.

Most importantly, be realistic about your employees and do your best to fill any gaps with the strongest candidates you can find. And accept the truth: You will never be entirely comfortable about firing people.

Related: 8 Signs You Should Fire an Employee

If you are, you might not have the empathy required to make a great leader. However, it is part of your job to ensure that your seats are filled with top talent, so be loyal to your whole team and know when to let underperformers go.