Correcting the Incorrect

No one looks forward to disciplining employees. Confronting a person about their behavior, dress, attitude, skills, and/or abilities is very awkward. With such a tight employment market, we are becoming more tolerable of less than perfect behavior in an attempt to stay fully staffed. With an abundance of job opportunities outside the front door, employee satisfaction has become the focus of supervisors, managers, and owners across the board. But at what cost?

Poor performance affects your external customers (your clients) as well as your internal customers (your employees). Misspellings in letters to clients, an argumentative attitude on the phone, an inappropriately dressed employee will all diminish the reputation of your organization to your clients. Ninety-six percent of your customers will never say a word to you about it. That does not mean they will not mention it to others. Statistics show they will tell at least nine other people.

An additional impact it has on your organization is with your own employees. A negative person is not pleasant to be around and we know how negativity can spread. An inappropriately dressed employee lowers the bar for others and one employee not doing their share of the job means everyone else's workload becomes greater. That will only last for a while before all the co-workers are alienated.

What is a manager to do? First of all, if other employees are complaining to you about it, be glad they told you. This gives you an opportunity to correct the situation before performing employees decide to leave. Assure your staff that you are aware of the problem and assure them you will be taking steps to correct it. If the situation has affected a number of co-workers, you may want to privately discuss the situation with each person. Give them a chance to elaborate on the problem with you. Let them know you will be taking steps to correct it.

If employees share their concerns with management, and leave feeling confident the problem will be rectified, they are less likely to complain to others on staff. Do not share the steps you will take to resolve the problem, do not get into the details of your discussion with the offending staff member, and do not get caught up in the gossip. Let them know you appreciate them sharing their feelings and you will keep the information they shared confidential. All conversations between managers and individual employees should never be shared with others.

Set aside a time to discuss the situation with the offending employee. This should be done in complete privacy from other staff. (If the problem is severe, you may want to ask another manager or supervisor to sit in.) If your office is small, you should set aside a time when the rest of the staff is at lunch, meet early in the day before everyone has arrived, or late in the day when many of the staff members have left already. Discipline or constructive criticism is not a spectator sport. It shows lack of respect for all of your employees if it is done in view of others.

Approach this meeting like any other by drafting notes on what you want to say, staying on track, and giving the employee a chance to comment. Keep the discussion focused on the problem and not the person. This is a time to stick to fact and stay away from feelings. Advise them on how to correct the negative behavior and set standards for what is acceptable. Never, under any circumstances, relay information given in confidence by their co-workers.

If there are tasks or situations the employee is handling well, this is a good time to let them know. Compliment them on positive actions, relay encouraging feedback you have received, and show sincere appreciation for a job well done.

Addressing problems with staff is not easy. It is a lot easier to look the other way and hope it takes care of itself. However, the results are not the same.