It is vital to point out the flaws in the working style or quality of products by your employees to improve or maintain industry standards. However, remember that your communication should always be an energy booster to your subordinates and not a pain in the neck for them. As a rule provide them with negative feed back only after appreciating them much in areas of their expertise. This is nothing but a balancing act that will have a positive impact on your employee and help them rectify their flaws and perform better.

The following strategies will be helpful in communicating the performance issues with your employees in a constructive manner.
Let your comments address the exact situation, problem, or the behavior. Avoid criticizing the person or their personality that may affect the employee. Before giving a feedback take your time to analyze the flaw and find out the reason behind the issue and prepare crystal clear solutions to solve the issue. On the spot reaction to a situation may have negative impact making the situation still worse.

It is good idea to gather information from the employee regarding the issue or the situation and this will enable you to effectively correct and improve the process. The best way is to ask questions for which the employee himself will arrive at the required solution sometimes with your guidance. However, beware of snappish questions and try to use thought provoking open ended questions. If your approach seems to undermine the skill of the employee it may make situations worse. Choose positive words for a smooth solution.

Before giving a feedback, ensure that your employee is clearly aware of the current situation and your expectations. It is wise to explain the possible consequences if the situation persists.

It is important that you maintain a documentation of all conversations with your subordinates along with their replies and the solutions arrived at including the follow up. This is important when it comes to occurrence of similar situations in the future. Documentation of these communications will help you in taking harsh actions in case the employee repeats the mistakes or does not oblige. Else any legal approach by the employee in case of termination would result in huge loss to your company.