Help For Employers Dealing With Difficult Workers

Help For Employers Dealing With Difficult Workers

Help For Employers Dealing With Difficult Workers

Bosses struggling to deal with grumpy, lazy, depressed or just plain difficult workers have a new tool to help them restore calm to their business. Recruitment consultancy Robert Half has just released a podcast featuring psychologist and business consultant Dr Steven Saunders explaining what causes difficult behaviour in the workplace, and the best way for employers to deal with it.

There are, says Dr Saunders, six main causes of difficult employee behaviour, and the first is poor leadership.

"If you haven't got the right boss, you haven't got the right leader, you haven't got constancy of purpose, you haven't got consistency of standards, you haven't got clarity of communications from the leader, you've got a breeding ground for difficult behaviour."

Other causes of difficult workplace behaviour include poor hiring processes, tired employees, people whose hearts are not in their jobs, individuals with psychological problems, and employees who are frustrated because they don't have the tools or training to do their job.

Dr Saunders also gives tips for pre-empting a confrontation, and dealing with workplace tensions before they become explosions.

"If you are an astute boss, you can usually see tension building up," says Dr Saunders.

When you do see it, it is best to act sooner rather than later, and deal with the tension face-to-face, rather than trying to solve it through emails, he says.

Other areas Dr Saunders covers in the podcast include the differences between personality clashes and difficult employees; how to avoid being drawn into a workplace conflict; dealing with employees whose personal problems are affecting their work; coaching employees through poor performance; how to spot genuine stress; and when to seek outside help.

His top tip for dealing with a difficult employee is to "deal with it".

"When you deal with it, be specific and focus on the issue - don't get hung up on personalities."

Dr Saunders recently gave his advice on dealing with difficult employees to finance and human resources professionals at a Robert Half Finance & Accounting business breakfast in Auckland.

His advice is now available for all employers to download from www.roberthalf.co.nz - click on "About Us", "Info Centre" then "Podcast".

ENDS

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