Problem Employees – Simple Procedures to Deal with Them

“Get the simple things right at first and avoid the problems later.” Wise words when it comes to dealing with problem employees. Especially when there’s disciplinary action involved.

Most small business owners or managers know that there are basic rules to follow to make sure that discipline is fair. But they so often make simple procedural mistakes when handling problem employees. And even more so when there’s a dismissal involved.

Reasons for Mistakes

There are a number of likely reasons for this: lack the experience, high frustration levels, impulsiveness, not dealing with the problem early enough……!

Sometimes it’s a poor understanding of what substantive fairness really is, i.e. a fair or valid reason for the warning or dismissal.

On the other hand, I’ve often found that there’s another main reason why they don’t handle problem employees effectively. It’s because they’re so tied up and preoccupied trying to resolve other time-consuming, day-to-day problems in the business. They just don’t have the time to deal with these issues.

The result is that when they’re confronted with problem employees, they use a reactionary approach and crisis management. Rather than trying to get to grips with what the problem’s all about. This means that any pro-active use of proper procedures takes a back seat.

For example, when confronted with a problem employee who’s been negligent they say things like: “I’ve had enough of this, the next time this happens, you’re history.”

That’s crisis management for you!!

A Better Approach

Rather, they could use another more effective approach to handle the problem and say: “What happened here? Explain to me what’s going on.” This shows that the manager wants to understand what the problem is before reacting to it.

When you really think about it, the best way you should deal with any problem employee whose done something wrong, is firstly to get to the bottom of the problem. Once you’ve done that and you know the who, the what, the why and the where, and you’re still unsure what to do next, you should get some proper advice.

There’s a straight forward process you can follow on how to deal with these issues. It’s simple and it’s laid down in the law (Labour Relations Act – Code of Good Practice: Dismissal – Schedule 8).

But for some reason, a lot of managers and business owners I know just plough straight in when there’s a problem. They say or do all sorts of things they regret later. And they end up with a huge headache.

I’m sure a lot of you’ll resonate with this.

What Method Do You Use?

The thing is, most of you’ll easily be able to deal with problem employees as and when the misconduct occurs…if you’re willing to learn how. But in order to do this you’ve got to have the right mindset.

If some of your employees are causing you headaches, here’s something to you should consider doing. Look at the method you and your managers currently use to handle these issues.

Now I ask you this: Why are you using this method? I’ll guess you might say … “I dunno, it’s just the way I handle it,” or “…we’ve always done it this way,” or “…it’s the only way I know how.”

Now, I ask you another question: “How many times a week, do you have to deal with problem employees?”

If your answer is (and you have to be honest here) “once or twice” (or more) a week, you’re probably using the wrong method.

There may be lots of you who try handling problem employees on a regular basis, but are you doing this effectively? Do the problems go away, or do they reoccur? Are you using the correct procedures as laid down by the law?

And the big question: Are these problem employees frustrating you, causing you headaches?

If they are, then you may be using the incorrect method.

It’s very easy to do whatever comes naturally to you, when dealing with employee misconduct. The problem is, it often backfires.

What happens is that you tend to follow your instinct, rather than zeroing in on the correct advice. And following the correct procedures. Then when the problem gets too big or gets out of hand, only then do you start looking for help to try and resolve the mess.

Time For A Change

Maybe you should learn how to handle these problem employees efficiently and effectively, from the word go.

Put some basic but proper procedures in place to help you. Learn how to use them. Then guaranteed, once you know how, you’ll get rid of your frustrations and headaches with problem employees. These people will either have to change or go!

I really recommend rather than having to continuously deal with problem employees, put those simple procedures in place to help you – and then hopefully, no more headaches.

If you look at how nearly all successful small businesses handle employee misconduct, you’ll find that they have the policies and procedures in place and advice on hand to help them.

They give you a simple step by step process on how to handle any employee misconduct. From excessive absenteeism, abuse of sick leave to negligence, poor performance and more.

If you don’t have a set of policies and procedures contact me and I can help you. Click HERE to find out how it works.

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