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For a moment, imagine a hypothetical scenario: The boss, Jane, is frantically trying to optimize revenue.
But an employee named Sue goes to Jane with a troubling story about another employee named Mary. Ironically, Mary is the best sales employee.
Sue alleges that the Mary is not only underperforming in customer service, she is turning off customers by treating them badly.
Jane panics. It makes her so angry that she approaches Mary with the allegation and reproaches her.
Mary is dumbfounded. She becomes upset and denies the allegation. An argument ensues and Jane fires Mary.
Naturally, as a boss you’re more savvy than Jane. You’ve already done your footwork and know what’s really going on so you know not to get sucked into this quagmire or not to conduct a workplace investigation.
You also know not to congratulate Sue for being a tattletale and not to take punitive action against Mary without proof.
Why?
Instead, you would have walked the floor at least twice a day to observe your employees first hand as they work with customers.
You would also have recalled Mary’s superior performance.
You would also have explained to Sue that she should focus on her own customer-service skills and not be monitoring other employees unless there’s illegal activity or someone’s safety is at-risk.
As a manager, your job is sometimes made more difficult than necessary because of unproductive workers.
With difficult employees, you have two obvious problems – the impacts on your organization and the behavior of the individual. So you should use tactics to enjoy your job managing difficult employees.
You also need to accurately appraise employee performances by avoiding 12 errors in evaluations.
After sufficient counseling and evaluations and employees aren’t able to improve, a good manager doesn’t allow the persons to overstay their welcome.
For a business to perform well, here are the five typical reasons to terminate workers:
1. Lack of productivity
In an uncertain marketplace, it’s not unusual for productivity to slow down. There can be many reasons why an employee is not at fault.
However, if it’s shown you have workers whose productivity is poor, fail to improve, show signs they don’t want to improve or they take up too much of your attention, it’s time for you to act.
That even goes for employees with a good work ethic and who are amiable and reliably on time, if they fail to develop their skills to help you make a dollar. You must make a change.
2. Toxic behavior
Some employees should not be allowed to stay if they’re morale busters.
For instance, perhaps they bully others, frequently argue with you or coworkers, spread rumors, fail to carry out company policies or complain about job requirements, you need to sever the employer-employee relationship.
Aimless complaining is a symptom of problems in teamwork, morale, negativity and/or productivity. You should be getting good employee ideas, not whining.
3. Cannot cope with change
You must have a workforce that understands change is unavoidable. Employees must be OK with change and be flexible to change or improve with the times.
When you have normally dependable workers but who can’t cope, you must nevertheless replace them.
4. No call or no show
When employees suffer a personal tragedy like the loss of a loved one, sometimes the last thing they remember to do is to call into work. Empathy is recommended.
But it’s a red flag if they have another tragedy and fail to call.
To avert losing time and money, your company must have good policies regarding absences.
If employees fail to call again, chances are they’re undesirable workers in other respects. If so, it’s time to let them go.
For healthy profits, it’s also good strategy to embark on a program solve employee absenteeism.
5. Customer and supplier complaints
When a customer or vendor feels taken for granted, 70 percent of the time they will fire your company.
Worse, your word-of-mouth advertising will suffer. Unhappy people will usually complain to numerous others.
For your customers, especially, their complaints about your company will become a crusade in their daily conversations or on social media.
You can’t afford employees who aren’t service-minded for your customers and vendors.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are related resource links:
Workplace Bullying – Tips for Victims and Bosses — Workplace issues include bullying. It’s a widespread problem for employers and employees, alike. Here are valuable tips for both employers and workplace victims.
Legal HR Issues? Best Practices in Workplace Investigations — As an employer, one of your biggest nightmares can be issues involving your employees. There can be many reasons to conduct an investigation. “Action expresses priorities,” said Mohandas Gandhi. So you should act quickly.
Critical HR Recruiting Strategies for Business Profit — By developing strategic recruiting plans, human resources professionals will make significant contributions to the bottom-line profit goals of their employers. So, it’s imperative to innovate in your recruiting processes and market your strategies to senior management and hiring managers.
How to Rock Your Human Resources with Employee Referrals — Admittedly, there’s a myriad of ways to recruit great employees. But no recruitment option surpasses a well-executed, strategic employee-referral program.
Probation Meetings – HR Tactics for New Employee Success — Hiring employees is expensive. So it’s important to use tactics that will help insure success of new workers. That calls for probation meetings. Here are five proven tactics.
Risk Management in Hiring: Pre-Employment Screening Tips — Here are two questions about hiring: 1) what’s the biggest mistake companies make in hiring employees; and 2) what’s the biggest legal obstacle employers face in hiring? Here’s what to do about background screening.
“Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.”
-Laurence J. Peter
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