(Cont'd)

Information obtained in their exit interviews led us to conduct a series of focus groups with the remaining employees. In these discussions, employees generated scores of very useful ideas, which many of ultimately helped re-position the call center from an inbound complaint and tip helpline to a profitable arm of the sales and marketing division.

The point? See your employees as capable and engage them by evoking, valuing and implementing their ideas. They will be more loyal, happy, and productive and your profits will improve as a result.

Fire power

Even with their best inspiration efforts, managers realize some of their employees just won’t ‘get with the programs’. They are either not willing, not able, or both. If they are willing but not able, training might be an option. If they are able and not willing, direct feedback and closer management are good first steps. If they are neither able nor willing, or training and feedback didn’t correct the problem, it’s time to move them out of your organization.

Shuffling them to another department is only a good idea if you are clear that he or she is a great employee who is just in the wrong job. If a transfer is the route you take, you must be explicit with the new manager about exactly what the employee’s skills and shortcomings are. Don’t just ‘pass the buck’ and hope.

Honest, constructive feedback is critical. Often managers tolerate less-than-productive behavior in the hopes of avoiding a lawsuit or out of fear of confronting poor behavior. They end up doing a disservice to everyone involved. Before you avoid that tough conversation one more time, think about the damage your reticence is doing to the entire system. Are you frustrated and having to work harder in order to compensate for the low productivity? Is your team getting resentful of the employee and you for not dealing with it? Is the department’s work suffering? What impact is this situation having on the company? And what about your customers? How is your cowardice affecting them?

Get explicit about the cost of tolerating poor behavior and deal with it. And in the future, hire the right person to begin with.