Troublesome staff crop up in almost every workplace. How you deal with them makes all thedifference to their impact.
Workplaces can be made up of any number of employees – from small businesses to huge organisations – as soon as you have more than one employee in a workplace you have the potential for conflict and difficulty.Employees working successfully and productively are no problem. Conversely, if an employee has serious and consistent performance issues, the ultimate sanction of dismissal can be applied.
However, what happens when employees don’t fall within either category?
Difficult people are in every workplace and they come in every variety: they might talk constantly and never listen, they might always want to have the last word or continuously fail to complete the tasks and commitments they say they will. Although it can be easier for managers and bosses to ignore the problem, particularly if they don’t have direct contact with the difficult person in a day-to-day situation, your workplace situation will not get better until the issue is addressed. Left unattended, difficult people can create conflict, disrupt other workers and be counterproductive to business.
Here is the best practice for managers when dealing with ‘difficult people’
1. Establish what good behaviour is
Employees need to know what good behaviour is, and understand the kind of behaviour will not be tolerated. Establish expectations quickly once a new employee has started; these ground rules might form part of their induction to the workplace, could be written into the policies and procedures of the company, or be explained during an initial meeting with their supervisor or manager. Once good behaviour guidelines are established work at them. To do this, feedback is essential, as negative behaviour that is unchecked will continue. Something as simple as an open door policy or a suggestion box in the staffroom gives staff an opportunity to raise issues directly with management who might not be aware that a difficult person is causing trouble otherwise.
2. You have three opportunities
Organisations have three opportunities to deal with employees’ behaviour where it may be detrimental to the workplace and other employees if it is not stopped. These opportunities are:
During induction. This process should make clear the expectations that the organisation has of its staff, to try and minimise such ‘bad behaviour’.
Informal meetings. These can be good opportunities to raise the problem without the need for administration and paperwork.
Performance appraisal. This is clearly the appropriate time to raise behavioural/performance issues, but organisations do not have to wait until the \time for this process if the problem needs to be addressed.
3. The employee needs to know
Difficult employees need to know:
• What behaviour is positive – this needs to be recognised, reinforced and, where appropriate, rewarded.
• What behaviour is detrimental – this needs to be addressed and stopped before this behaviour continues further.
• What work has been carried out well – again, this needs to be recognised, reinforced and, where appropriate, rewarded.
• What work has not been carried out well – this needs to be unequivocally pointed out, with clear statements of the consequences of continuing, for the employee, the section, department and organisation.
4. Watch your information delivery
The way that you deliver this information to such ‘difficult people’ will determine the outcome. In order to get the best outcomes from a meeting, management should give the employee notice of any meeting along with an indication of the topic to be discussed, try to avoid aggressive behaviour and negative comments and give the employee an opportunity to provide a solution to the problem, thereby giving them ownership over it. Sometimes, problematic behaviour exhibited by employees may arise from a difference of opinions between co-workers. These usually fall into two categories: work related differences and personality clashes.
Where the differences are work related, they are often relatively easy to solve. Either a manager can intervene to provide a solution or one of the parties can bring the matter to management and the matter can be dealt with in a semi-official forum.
Where the problem stems from a personality clash, it is more problematic because the issue is highly unlikely to be brought to the attention of management. That said, if the personality clash demonstrates itself in employee behaviour that is detrimental to the organisation and fellow employees, then despite the matter being private and personal, management, has a right to intervene.
Finally, where an employee exhibits problematic behaviour, dismissal needs to be seen as a last resort. Not only is there a possibility of a Personal Grievance being lodged, but, more importantly, there is institutional knowledge literally walking out the door.
We live in a time when retention and skills shortages are crucial issues in New Zealand. Given that we spend much of our life at work, it is essential that any contention is handled in the most effective way.
Beverley Main is the chief executive of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ).
HRINZ provides professional development and representation to all of its 3,600 members.
The Author: Beverley Main
