In part one of How to Deal with difficult Employees, I used the analogy of the high school dance to explain the five types of students who attended the dance and how they behaved.
Once you deal with the unsavable number five’s you may still be faced with dealing with difficult employees. The important thing is what action to take.
Below questions to answer to work through to the cause of the problem so you are able to resolve it. You can download this as a for from the forms and worksheets resources.
- What is the problem?
- How long has the problem been occurring?
- Was the employee ever able to do the work as required?
- What has changed if anything? If yes, what changed, when and what can be done to reverse it? Will addressing this solve the problem?
- What has been done to address the issue?
- What has not been done that can be done to address the issue?
- Does the employee have all the tools and support required to do the work as required?
- If answered no in question 7, what tools and support is needed for the employee to do the work as required? Write down a list of resources to provide the employee and when it should be delivered. See if this solves the problem. First make sure that the employee understands what you expect from them and set a time to deliver the resources and to check if the problem is solved.
- Has the provision of tools and support resolved the issue? If yes great, if no go to the next question.
- Could the employee do perform the task or fix the problem if her life depended on it?
- If yes, then start again at question one and if you cannot find the cause of the problem, either live with it or replace the employee.