Employee Keeps Making the Same Mistake? How to Respond

When an employee keeps making the same mistake, start by checking last time's fix

When a direct report makes the same mistake again, your first move isn't to scold them harder. It's to check whether the fix you agreed on last time was actually carried out. If the mistake happened again, last time's response didn't prevent it. This page focuses on repeated careless errors, such as data-entry mistakes or missed checks.

Here's the example we'll use. Every Monday by 10 a.m., your team member sends a weekly report to a client, Company A. They build it by copying the previous week's file and swapping in the new numbers. 3 weeks ago, they sent it with last week's figure still in the "Inquiries" column, and Company A pointed it out. That time, the conversation ended with your team member saying, "From now on, I'll review it before I send it." This week, last week's number was left in a different column.

To you, it looks like "I told them, and they didn't do it," and you're tempted to use stronger words than the first time. But even if the fix wasn't carried out, the reason isn't necessarily a lack of motivation.

KAKEAI's survey of 10,000 employees in Japan asked 6,074 people who said their meetings with their manager lead to action about half the time or less why that happens (up to 5 answers). 15.4% said "time or cost constraints keep me from acting." 9.1% said "I lack the skills to do it," and 8.3% said "It clashes with how I see myself or who I want to be, so I don't want to." The most common answer was "it depends on the situation," at 26.1%. More people named time or cost constraints than named a lack of skills or a clash with their self-image.

Reviewing or double-checking adds one more check to the current process. That makes each task take longer, so the check tends to get skipped on rushed days, which are exactly the days it's needed most. Scolding harder doesn't give anyone more time on Monday morning. What's repeating isn't only the employee's mistake. It's also the fix (adding a check that's easy to skip) and the way you scold.

When the same mistake happens a second time, sit down with your team member and work out which of the three situations below you're in. If this breakdown doesn't fit, adjust it to the person and the work.

What to say first the second time, and how to handle each situation

Once you find out about the second mistake, take about 15 minutes that same day and talk somewhere private. Start by laying out the facts of both mistakes alongside the fix you agreed on last time. Ask whether the fix was carried out as a matter of fact, not in a blaming tone.

If you feel the urge to say something sharp, try rephrasing it like this.

When last time ended with "I'll be more careful"

If last time's conversation ended with "I'll be more careful," no fix was ever decided. "Being careful" doesn't spell out what will change or how. You also ended the conversation without deciding, so it often helps to say so yourself instead of scolding.

When the fix wasn't carried out and the mistake happened again

If the fix wasn't carried out, start by asking what happened. Then narrow what you say down to one point.

What you're addressing isn't the mistake itself. It's that they realized they couldn't carry out the fix and sent the report without talking to you first. Saying it once, briefly, is enough.

Relationships between managers and direct reports go through stages, and the right approach changes with the stage. Early on, while there's still some reserve, "I didn't get to it" is hard to say. We recommend telling them up front that you'd rather hear it, even if it's late.

When a fix wasn't carried out, don't just re-promise it. Change the process so a gap is obvious at a glance. Making the missing time is your job, since you're the one who can adjust schedules.

When the fix was carried out and the mistake still happened

A mistake that happens even though the fix was carried out isn't something to scold. What was wrong wasn't your team member's behavior. It was the assumption you both made that "reviewing will catch it."

Decide on the new fix together, based on exactly where the mistake happened this time.

Check the new fix together the next time the same task comes up

Check whether the new fix is working on the next day the same task comes up, without waiting for the next 1-on-1.

In 300,000 1-on-1 sessions extracted from the records of Kakeai, KAKEAI's 1-on-1 service (Kakeai AI 1on1), the median gap between consecutive 1-on-1s for the same manager and direct report was 29 days. It's common for about a month to pass between one 1-on-1 and the next.

If you leave checking the fix until the next 1-on-1, a weekly task will come around about 4 times before you check. If you haven't checked even once in that time, then when the next mistake happens you won't know which part of the fix to correct. And if things are going well, you'll have had no chance to say so.

When it happens a third time: what you change and what you say

If a third mistake happens even after you've reset the fix, don't add any more checks for your team member. Use your authority as manager to change how the work is done. At the same time, tell them clearly what the evaluation standard is for this work and what you think.

Here are some changes you could make.

• Separate the person who prepares the report from the person who sends it. Before it goes out, someone else spends about 1 minute comparing it with last week's report.
• Change the deadline. You ask Company A whether noon on Monday would also work.
• Move other work that piles up on Monday morning to Tuesday.
• Consider changing who handles the work. Explain your reasons based on what actually happened, listen to their view, and then decide.

You take on explaining to your director and to Company A. When you do, don't say "I warned them." Say what you changed, for example "We've split preparing and sending between two people."

It often helps to share the evaluation standard in advance, during regular meetings. KAKEAI's survey compared people who meet with their manager every 2 weeks to once a month, split by whether they discuss performance evaluation in those meetings. 37.4% of those who discuss evaluation felt the meetings were contributing to results, compared with 30.8% of those who don't. At this meeting frequency, people who discuss evaluation were more likely to feel results.

If you haven't shared the standard yet, tell your team member when you talk about the third mistake. If it's mid-period, there's still time to improve. To avoid misunderstandings, talk while looking together at the reports that were sent and Company A's emails. What you can share is the evaluation standard and your current view. You can't promise the outcome.

Don't bring up a written incident report, disciplinary action, or paying for damages on your own authority either. Check your company's employment policies and talk with HR.

Avoid concluding that the repeated mistakes come from their personality, their attentiveness, an illness, or a disability. A manager isn't in a position to diagnose. If they mention something like "I can't sleep" or "I haven't been feeling well," connect them with occupational health services or a medical professional.

What to avoid when coaching an employee who repeats the same mistake

Here are five things we don't recommend when the same mistake keeps happening.

• Repeating the same scolding, only harsher. Raising your voice, talking longer, or saying it more often doesn't change the substance of a scolding that didn't work the first time. KAKEAI doesn't recommend applying the same scolding and the same fix every time a mistake happens. On the other hand, if you quietly fix it yourself without saying anything, the same mistake is likely to keep happening. Based on its experience supporting more than 3 million 1-on-1s and its survey of 10,000 employees in Japan, KAKEAI believes there's no universal way to coach someone through a repeated mistake. You try the fix you agreed on, check the result, and keep adjusting.
• Deciding in advance that you'll only ask questions until they figure out the cause themselves. Some advice says, "Don't give the answer. Keep asking questions and wait for them to realize it." KAKEAI doesn't recommend deciding on that approach ahead of time. In Kakeai's records, when "work progress and how to approach the work" was chosen as a topic before a 1-on-1, the direct report picked "I want us to think it through together" 17.0% of the time. "I want concrete advice" was 13.2%, and "I want you to listen" was 7.5%. For this topic, thinking it through together and getting advice were chosen more often than simply being heard. Start by asking what they're struggling with and what they'd like to do, then work out the cause and the fix together. On the other hand, avoid deciding the cause yourself without hearing them out. If your team member has already worked out the cause on their own, just listening may be enough.
• Adding more and more self-reviews and checklists. Before adding checks, look for steps you can remove entirely, like copying the previous file or re-typing numbers by hand.
• Ending with your team member alone writing a reflection or a prevention plan. Even if it's written down, a fix rarely sticks unless you set a date to check together whether it was carried out. If company rules require any documents, you as the manager should ask HR.
• Presenting an evaluation result or disciplinary action as if it's already decided. Don't say, "If you make the same mistake again, I'll lower your rating." The evaluation result isn't something a manager can decide alone.

How to tell whether your coaching worked

Judge whether your coaching on a repeated mistake worked by the result the next time the same task comes up, not by the "I'm sorry" you heard on the day you talked.

After the conversation, look back on how things went between you using these three points.

• Next Monday, were you able to check together, before it went out, the report built with the new method?
• On a day when they couldn't carry out the fix, were they able to tell you before sending, "I haven't been able to check it today"? If they do, the two of you can act before a report with errors reaches Company A.
• After 3 weeks in a row with no errors, did you tell them, in your own words, that the issue is closed?