Problem Employee Solutions

Definitions

Open Communication Model

In this model, the manager is instrumental in creating an atmosphere in the workplace that encourages employees to tap into the power of their emotions which leads to high motivation, increased problem-solving capability, and improved decision making by employees. Operating in this way contributes to the development of an emotionally intelligent organization.

Emotionally Intelligent Organization

An emotionally intelligent organization is one in which everyone communicates with understanding and respect, people work in collaboration with each other, and respect for others is demonstrated throughout the organization. The manager models good listening skills and uses open-ended questions to communicate with employees.There is a constant flow of positive feedback between manager and employees. Managers reframe negative feedback in a way that motivates employees to take responsibility for themselves. There is an atmosphere of appreciation that exists in this workplace environment.

Ex Dem Pra Coaching Technique

This is ideally used for training an employee in a new skill.

First find out what the employee already knows about the new skill.

Give the employee the 'why'
Answer these questions:
Why is learning this skill important?
What are the benefits gained in learning this skill?
How does this add to the team or the overall goals of the task, project etc?

Ex
Explain

I say, I do

You demonstrate and explain each step

I say You do

You talk through each step and the employee follows your instructions

Dem
Demonstrate

You say, you do

Employee talks through the steps and does them at the same time

You say, I do

Employee gives you the steps and you follow the instructions

Pra
Practice

Employee practices the skill
Either by themselves. or with you close by or watching, or assign a mentor or a person who is experienced in that skill.

Examples of Communication Techniques

Example of “The Language of High Expectations”

Focus on the positive with the employee.

Assume the employee intends to take “ownership and responsibility” for their behavior or performance.

Example Statement:

“Bill, I enjoy our working relationship and your facilitating our team meetings. That’s why I feel confident we are able to resolve anything that seems a problem between us concerning our last meeting. I know the two of us can handle this situation in a positive way and move forward in our working together.”

Example of Expecting a Positive Outcome with Employee

Focus on the present with the employee.

State your expectation concerning the behavior or performance issue.

Express your confidence in the employee’s ability to take action on their own behalf.

Ask for suggestions and action steps the employee intends to take in handling the situation.

Example Open-Ended Question:

“John, what steps do you think you need to take to turn this performance or behavior situation around?”

Ask Employee for Ideas

Ask employee for ideas in handling the situation:

What suggestions for improvement do you have?

What are your expectations for handling this situation in the future?

When are you considering on making changes?

Where do you feel you need help?

Are you prepared to make changes in how you respond to this situation in the future?

Positive Discipline

Manager’s Insight with Positive Discipline:

The ideal for managers is when employees seek to self-manage themselves in the workplace. The are aware of the company standards and policies and choose to comply with them for the success of the organization.

Such employees usually are focused on producing results and collaborating with other employees as well as their manager in the workplace. In this model there is a positive aspect to discipline in that when employees are informed of a problem with their behavior or their performance they take ownership and responsibility for correcting the situation.

Personality Style Feedback Examples

Director Style Personality: “John, if we focus on this aspect of the project, we will be able to get results quickly with our staff.”

Socializer Style Personality: “What excites me Mary, is the recognition our department will receive once we have completed this project with Client XYZ.”

Thinker Style Personality: “Jeff, I would like to explain to you the research I did to come up with this information.”

Relater Style Personality: “Ellen, I really appreciate your participation on this project. You are a great team member!”

Motivational Quotes

"We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them." (Albert Einstein)

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." (President Harry S Truman)

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." (Albert Camus, 1913 - 1960, French author & philosopher)

"If you're not part of the solution you must be part of the problem." (the commonly paraphrased version of the original quote: "What we're saying today is that you're either part of the solution, or you're part of the problem" by Eldridge Cleaver 1935-98, founder member and information minister of the Black Panthers, American political activist group, in a speech in 1968 - thanks RVP)

"A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline." (Harvey Mackay - thanks Brad Hanson)

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed." (Booker T Washington, 1856-1915, American Educator and African-American spokesman, thanks for quote M Kincaid, and for biography correction M Yates and A Chatterjee)

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you." (William James, American Philosopher, 1842-1910 - thanks Jean Stevens)

"Whatever you can do - or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer, 1749-1832 - thanks Yvonne Bent)

"A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than the giant himself." (Didacus Stella, circa AD60 - and, as a matter of interest, abridged on the edge of an English £2 coin)

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (Sir Isaac Newton, 1676.)

"The most important thing in life is not to capitalise on your successes - any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your mistakes." (William Bolitho, from 'Twelve against the Gods')

"Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud: Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but unbowed . . . . . It matters not how strait the gait, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." (WE Henley, 1849-1903, from 'Invictus')

"Management means helping people to get the best out of themselves, not organising things." (Lauren Appley)

"It's not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with the sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause and who, at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." (Theodore Roosevelt, 23 April 1923.)

"The world is divided into people who do things, and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There's far less competition." (Dwight Morrow, 1935.)

"What does not kill us makes us stronger." (attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche, probably based on his words: "Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." from The Twilight of the Idols, 1899)

"A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." (George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950.)

"I praise loudly. I blame softly." (Catherine the Great, 1729-1796.)

Article Links

Turning Around a Problem Employee
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5035052.html#

Coaching a problem employee
http://adtimes.nstp.com.my/jobstory/2001/july6.htm

How To Set Boundaries With Problem Employees
http://www.workrelationships.com/site/articles/problememployee.htm

Turnaround or Terminate? How to Deal with Problem Employees
http://choosetoprosper.com/alexander-problem-employee.html

DIFFICULT EMPLOYEES
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Co-Di/Difficult-Employees.html

Managing Disciplinary Interviews
http://www.stafda.org/advisories/current-6.pdf

How to fire an employee
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis724/SpecialLibrariesHandbook/Firing.htm

Book Recommendations

Damage Control, An Employer's Guide to Just Cause Termination
by Malcolm J. MacKillop
(ISBN 0-88804-246-9).

This a fairly new Canadian book
Books on Firing and Terminating Employees

How To Manage Problem Employees
A Step By Step Guide for Turning Difficult Employees into High Performers
By Glenn Shepard
(ISBN 0-471-73043-3)

Written 2005 - very practical hands on suggestions

More about this book

More Problem Employee Books

HR Manager's Guide To Employee Discipline and Discharge
By Donald B. Jarvis, Carol S. Nielson, Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti
(ISBN 0-459-28323-5)

Written 2004, Canadian with good examples of case studies

More Employee Discipline Books

Books on Motivating Employees

Books on Performance Evaluations and Appraisals

Books about Negativity in the Workplace

Leadership

The Velvet Hammer PowHERful Leadership Lessons for Women Who Don't Golf
By Elaine Allison

Elaine published The Velvet Hammer in the spring of 2006, and it quickly became recognized as a 'must have' book for women in leadership who are often in an male dominated work environment.
Men will find it very insightful!! Elaine was forced to find effective leadership strategies when she first entered the workforce. At the age of 19 she was the only female employee in a male correctional facility, and had to quickly develop effective strategies in order to survive. This is an enjoyable read with effective tips and techniques that WORK!!

Buy The Velvet Hammer from Amazon

Termination of an Employee

Useful Links

Loss Control Bulletin No. 18
February 2004
(http://www.encon.ca/admin/documents/89DO18E.pdf)

Termination of an Employee

Some key concepts about termination that are incorporated into all Employment/ Labour Standards in Canada are:

'Termination with Cause' or 'Termination with Just Cause'

Termination with cause or termination with just cause means that an employee is dismissed for a very serious reason related to the employee's conduct.
Not all Employment/Labour Standards define 'termination with cause'. Those that do refer to: wilful misconduct, disobedience, deliberate neglect of duties as reasons for termination with cause.

'Termination without Cause'

Termination without cause means that the employee is being terminated for reasons that are not related to misconduct and notice of the termination is required as outlined in the Employment/Labour Standards.
http://www.hrcouncil.ca/people/pg003_e.cfm

What is the generally accepted definition of the term 'just cause' for termination.
http://globeandmail.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/legalq-a/20031003/lqa20031003?section=LegalQA

Wrongful Dismissal
By Patrice B. Newman, Barrister & Solicitor
http://www.victorialaw.bc.ca/practice/dismissal.htm

12 Thoughts on Employee Terminations
http://labourlawblog.typepad.com/managementupdates/2005/04/ways_to_reduce_.html

Firing employee not always end of story
You might be surprised by the new definition of 'just cause'By Mike Dempster - Business Edgehttp://www.businessedge.ca/article.cfm/newsID/9063.cfm

Termination for Incompetence
Janice Payne, Barrister and Solicitor, Shane Sawyer, Student-at-law
Nelligan O’Brien
http://www.nelligan.ca/e/pdf/Termination_for_Incompetence_(JBP).pdf

Termination of Employment & Severance Pay
http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/factsheets/fs_termination.html

Wrongful Dismissal Law in Canada

Duhaime's Employment & Labour Law Center
http://www.duhaime.org/Employment/ca-wd.aspx

Recent Developments in the Law of Just Cause

By Tim Lawson and John Lewis of Our Labour and Employment Law Practice
http://www.lexpert.ca/labour/files/Nota_bene-Just_Cause-Final-Sept2003.pdf

Overview of Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Labour Standards)
http://www.fls-ntf.gc.ca/en/presentation1.asp

Good faith and wrongful termination in Canada and the United States: a comparative and relational inquiry.
Robert C. Bird, Darren Charters
http://www.allbusiness.com/periodicals/article/343202-1.html

Termination of Employment
http://www.rhdcc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=/en/lp/spila/clli/eslc/07termination_of_employment.shtml&hs=lxn

Terminations
Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Labour Standards)
http://www.rhdcc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=/en/lp/lo/lswe/ls/publications/10.shtml&hs=lxn

Unjust Dismissal
Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Labour Standards)
http://www.rhdcc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=/en/lp/lo/lswe/ls/publications/8.shtml&hs=lxn

When to Keep Trying—When to Give Up

Keep Trying

It’s a minor training issue
It’s a short-term personality issue
The employee is making a true effort
The employee is showing improvement but taking longer than anticipated

Give Up

The skills cannot be easily developed
The personality issues cannot be overcome
The employee does not care
All allowances have been made and the situation continues

Manager’s Guidelines for the Discipline Improvement Plan:

Manager’s Guidelines for the Discipline Improvement Plan:

Is the problem with the employee a behavior or performance issue?

Has the employee been informed of the company standard being violated?

Does the employee understand what being in compliance with the company standard means?

Has the manager clearly indicated to the employee the ways in which the standard is not being met?

Has the manager documented in detail the intervention that has been provided to assist the employee in improving the situation.

What expectations have been established by the manager and what is the timeframe for them to be met?

What specific actions are to be taken by the employee and what is the timeframe in which they are to be accomplished?

Written Warning

This is an example of the progression of a written warning

April 18, 2001
Re: Oral Warning
On March 5th, I gave you an oral warning concerning your chronic tardiness over arriving late for work on three different occasions the week of February 23-27.

On March 5th, I gave you an oral warning concerning your chronic tardiness over arriving late for work on three different occasions the week of February 23-27. At that time you assured me that this would not be an ongoing problem and was due to your babysitter not arriving on time to care for your children. We visited and you suggested at that time that you would consider hiring a new babysitter who would be more reliable.

Since this conversation, in the last two weeks you have arrived late for work on four different occasions. I am concerned that we are seeing a repeat of the pattern that occurred in February. You had stated that the tardiness issue would be resolved and that is not the case.

I expect you to be at work on time as that is our company policy for all employees except in the case of an immediate emergency. You and I need to discuss this issue further privately in a meeting.
I do expect that you will have an explanation for this recent tardiness and that you will be able to provide me with some suggestions for how you plan to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.

A copy of this memo documenting your oral warning will be placed in your file. Unless you follow this directive concerning your chronic tardiness, you will be subject to further serious disciplinary action.
I have received a copy of this memo. ____________________________________

Mary Smith/April 18,2001

Verbal Warning

Verbal Warning Example

Manager says to employee: “Cathy, I have been really pleased with your efforts to stay on top of the new tasks we have given you. Others have noticed your performance as well. My concern is that with the increased workload your being able to manage your time better will be important. I have noticed that you have been arriving late for work several times each week which really affects your ability to work on tasks first thing in the morning.”

Progressive Discipline

Definition of:
Progressive Discipline is a system of discipline which provides for an increase in the severity of the penalty with each offense that the employee commits.

System of Progressive Discipline Actions Would Include:
Informal Talk
Oral Warning
Verbal Counseling
Written Warning
Potential Disciplinary Lay-Off/Suspension
Transfer or Demotion
Termination

Progressive Discipline
http://www.rhdcc.gc.ca/asp/gateway.asp?hr=en/lp/lo/lswe/ls/publications/progressive.shtml&hs=lxn

Negative Feedback

Negative Feedback Example:

Manager says: “John, I noticed noticed how concerned you were that the completion of this task was done accurately. I appreciate your concern but as you well know there was a time delay that affected other employees being able to complete their work in waiting for you to finish. In the future, would you consider checking in with me and let me know how you are doing with this type of task so that if there are problems we can intervene sooner and not have this create delays for other employees ."
“In the future, would you consider checking in with me and let me know how you are doing with this type of task so that if there are problems we can intervene sooner and not have this create delays for other employees. What would be a more effective way we could handle this situation in the future to eliminate the delay that occurred?”

Positive Feedback

Positive Feedback Example

Manager says: “Mary, I really appreciate your efforts in meeting the deadline for Project XYZ. I can see that in the future your being a project team leader will be valuable for our department. You seem to have a natural talent for anticipating what needs to be done and moving the project along to meet our designated deadlines. Thanks for all your hard work and commitment to this Project!”

Manager’s Insight

Manager’s Insight: Creating a positive emotional response in their employees

A positive emotional response is elicited in an employee when they are:

Treated fairly

Respected

Recognized for their contributions

Listened to with empathy

Valued for their input

Challenged to make a contribution

Negativity in the Workplace

Manager’s early warning signs: “Red Flag”

Absenteeism—increase in absences with vague excuses

Relationship Problems—complaints from co-workers, avoidance of other co-workers

Personal Appearance—may not appear well-groomed, looks sloppy and unkempt

Attitude and Behavior—poor interaction with co-workers, involved in conflicts with others, have negative attitude

On-the-Job Absenteeism—not present at their position, long breaks and lunches, other employees have to finish their work

Job Efficiency—missed deadlines, deteriorating productivity in their job, failure to follow instructions, consistent errors in their performance

Manager Communication Examples:

Stating an “I” message:

“Jim, I am pleased with how you handled the XYZ account. Our client feels you have been really concerned about their issues.”

Ask effective questions:

What led you to this decision?

What suggestions for improvement do you have?

When will this action take place?

When do you consider you will make changes?

Where do you feel you need help?

Why are you considering taking this action?

How do you plan to turn this situation around?

How do you plan to implement this change?

Restate/Rephrase a Statement:

“I think the point you are making in saying…is that you feel strongly about...”

Emotional Intelligence Definition

“We’re being judged…not just by how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle ourselves and each other.”

Daniel Goleman/Emotional Intelligence

Definition of an Emotionally Intelligent Organization

An emotionally intelligent organization is one in which everyone communicates with understanding and respect, people work in collaboration with each other, and respect for others is demonstrated throughout the organization. The manager models good listening skills and uses open-ended questions to communicate with employees.

There is a constant flow of positive feedback between manager and employees. Managers reframe negative feedback in a way that motivates employees to take responsibility for themselves. There is an atmosphere of appreciation that exists in this workplace environment.