It is almost impossible to have all perfect employees in the work place. They are different people coming from different backgrounds, with different lifestyles, ethics, characters, and attitudes. You should expect to see a display of different characters, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now that we know that diverse characters and attitudes must surely be displayed by employees in the workplace, how can you deal with difficult employees that portray the wrong ethics, character, and behavior, and how can you avoid it ruining your business or company? Part of your duty as an entrepreneur is to be psychologically capable of dealing with different people and managing them effectively. Inability to do this may cause drastic effects on the productivity of the organization. The following are the steps for dealing with difficult employees in the workplace-
- Recognize and understand their weaknesses- I want to refer to their wrong attitudes and character as their weaknesses which are difficult to cope with. Logically, you cannot deal with a problem that you are not aware of; first you must recognize the problem and try to understand it. That is the first step to take when dealing with difficult employees in the workplace; recognize their weaknesses and understand it, then you would know the next step to take.
- Find solutions to their problems- now that you have recognized their weaknesses and have tried to understand them, those weaknesses before you have become problems that needs to be solved, and if the solutions are not given, it would definitely escalate and negatively affect your business.
- Incorporate team work into the system- one way of dealing with difficult employees and ensuring their weaknesses doesn’t negatively affect the business is by incorporating team work into the system so that those persons don’t have to work alone and by so doing, they cannot singularly determine the productivity of the business. Also, while pairing the employees into different teams, consider pairing people that would complement each other, for example, if Employee A has a weakness which may be lack of patience, you can pair him or her with employee B who may have a high level of tolerance.
- Review their performance regularly- it is important to keep tabs on these set of employees to ensure that their difficulties are not getting out of hand and can still be controlled. You can do this by reviewing their performance regularly, maybe through an interview or a survey. Doing this would help you know if you are managing them effectively or if you still need to put things in place to deal with the situation.
- Set rules and regulations- establishing a set of rules and regulations would govern the actions and behaviours of employees in the workplace. In those rules and regulations, you would list the acceptable as well as unacceptable conducts of employees in the workplace and set a standard for them to follow. Doing this would serve as a guide to the employees and a means to check their conducts, and would make the work orderly.
- Set consequences- establishing rules and regulations goes in line with establishing consequences for actions. If any employee should default in obedience to rules and regulations, he or she should face the consequences and receive the appropriate punishment. This would make them feel a sense of responsibility for their actions and would make them take their jobs seriously and stop causing troubles.
- Listen to them- one way to effectively deal with difficult employees is to give them room to talk and sincerely listen to them. The cause of their problem might not be so big and by doing this, you may be able to understand their problems and needs easily, and recognize how best you can help them improve their characters and deal with their difficulties. So, invite them often to talk, listen to them, share points, and extend commitments. Be specific when telling them your expectations and be consistent in this process.
- Don’t criticize them openly- some employers talk or shout angrily at their employees even in public when they make mistakes and display the wrong attitude. This may be a sudden reaction to the pressure and anger the employer is experiencing at that time, but it is not the best way to deal with this. Criticizing them publicly would only cause them embarrassment, shame, and anger, and this may actually make the employee act more difficultly.
- Don’t accept excuses- some employees have the habit of covering their wrong doings with lousy excuses. This may seem like nothing but as time goes on, this habit would continue and increase, and eventually, it would start causing problems. All employees should be responsible for themselves, and employees causing difficulties in the work place has a greater responsibility to improve and become better, hence, such a one should not always give excuses and the employer should not give room for this.
- Ask for help- inasmuch as it is the entrepreneur’s duty to manage his business or company, when you have to deal with difficult employees, you can request help from your close friends and colleagues on how best to deal with the employee and avoid the toxic result that may be caused by the actions of those employees.
- Dismiss them- when these employees gets too difficult to handle and refuse to take correction, help, or change their habits, then you have to consider dismissing them. This is appropriate because you have exhausted all means to manage them and make them useful in the workplace, but they have refused to accept your help and have continued in their negligence, and if they are allowed to stay in the workplace, they can negatively affect your business or company, hence the need to dismiss them.
We have seen a lot of steps that can guide any entrepreneur or employer to effectively deal with difficult employees in the workplace. Do your best to deal with this problem and safeguard your business or company. Thanks for reading!
