Every employer’s ultimate goal is to attract and retain
valuable employees in their workforce through acquisition of the right talents
that would help them attain their strategic objectives. Unfortunately, this is
not always the case. Some employees may end up exhibiting counterproductive
behavior, which could hinder the company’s productivity as well as interfere
with interpersonal relationships with fellow employees. So what should an HR
Manager do in such a situation?
If you look at this list, you would agree that some of them
may appear to be difficult depending on the circumstances. Since dealing with
difficult employees is not as simple as it sounds, we would need to look at
several factors, which will help us shed some light on steps that will result
in a positive outcome for the company, the employee, and the co-workers.
Address the situation using the following steps:
1. Open a line of communication with the employee to
investigate fully the nature of the problem. At this point, the policies of the
organization will be revisited to ensure that the employee is on the same page
with acceptable behavior, rules and regulations, as well as the strategic goal
of the company. Employees may become unhappy if they are not linking their
responsibilities to the goals of the organization and also their
responsibilities are not challenging or their talents not fully utilized. This
may result in boredom and we know that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop.
Should such a situation arise, the HR Manager should address it right away so
that it doesn’t get out of hand. It would be good to have a one-on-one with the
employee. Also, the employee may prefer to discuss the issue with their own
peers, and there has been proven success in engaging a respected co-worker to
speak to a difficult employee.
2. Plan a course of action based on the findings in the
first step. One of the actions would be to assign a mentor to the employee that
seems to be struggling with work or interactions with his/her team members. A
mentor should also be able to assist the employee with both personal and
company goals. An employee may engage in counterproductive behavior due to
inadequate knowledge and experience required to successfully complete their
daily tasks. If this is the case, the employee should be assigned to take
appropriate training programs to enhance their skills and competencies. The HR manager would need to properly look
into the circumstances surrounding the situation and address them, making sure
to separate opinion from actual behavior.
3.Reach a positive outcome/resolution that will benefit the
company, the employee, and co-workers. The decision has to be closely monitored
to ensure desired results. If after applying the interventions mentioned in
step #2 above the problem still persists, disciplinary action may be
considered.
If the employee’s misconduct is considered serious in
nature, it may lead to immediate discharge.
Otherwise for minor offenses, HR may impose several levels of penalties
as follows:
- First offense—oral warning
- Second offense—written warning
- Third offense—second written warning and suspension
without pay
- Fourth offense—termination
In summary, the key is not only to address the person’s
behavior but also what may have contributed to the employee acting in an
unfavorable manner. Often times the so-called “difficult employee” may actually
be the most creative in the company. Companies want to retain their most
valuable employees, and employees, on the other hand, do not wish to lose their
jobs.
TYPES OF DIFFICULT EMPLOYEES:
- The hostile worker, who is verbally abusive and destructive
- The whiner, who complains just about everything
- The pessimist, who never believes there will be any good outcome and at such can affect others with his negativity
- The sniper, who constantly criticizes others
- The impatient, who doesn’t care about policies and procedures
- The know-it-all, very smart and an expert in his field but can be very exasperating
- The arrogant worker, who will never admit that he doesn’t really know anything
- The indecisive worker takes too long to make a decision, thereby causing unnecessary delay in productivity
- The silent employee takes an offensive position and simply does not contribute to any decision
- The “yes” worker that will agree to anything without really intending to carry it out
Written by Dr. Victoria Ashiru, Professor at the VIU School of Business.
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