A warehouse worker started at my company about 2 months ago. His role is pick/pack and he is very slow (benchmarked to other employees). I have introduced KPIs but he is consistently not meeting them. Aside from this, he is a great culture fit and has other great qualities (initiative, independence, desire to learn, etc). He is just SO slow in his role even after trying multiple techniques to get him to improve efficiency. I’m often in on weekends to catch up his work. He is always actively working (not on his phone, not chatting) but for some reason just can’t pick up the pace. How do I politely tell him that he needs to hurry up and meet KPIs? He seems to work at one pace no matter how swamped we are with holiday orders. He is somewhat fragile and emotional so I worry that being blunt will result in hostile feelings.

Do I just let him go?