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“Culture” has become somewhat of a buzzword in recent years when it comes to the workplace. How employees feel, communication with management and the policies that are in place all impact the overall employee experience. Successful execution of these initiatives requires time and effort, but is infinitely worth because of the many benefits it offers.

Happy workers are 12 percent more productive than the average worker, while unhappy workers are 10 percent less productive. (1)

Keep reading to learn about common issues that can cause lack of motivation and chaos at your workplace and get strategies to resolve them.

Common Issue #1:
The Culture Encourages Slackers and Pushes Out Good Workers 

Workers generally fall into one of three categories:

  • Over-achievers who go above and beyond, always giving more than 100 percent to every single assignment
  • Mediocre workers who do the job but nothing more and have decided that the poor culture is not worth further investment of their time and/or effort
  • Slackers who do their best to squeak by while doing less work than the minimum, contributing virtually nothing to the company.

The underlying problem with slackers is that their work typically gets pushed onto the overachievers first and often trickles down to the mediocre workers. Over-achievers get burnt out and mediocre workers become even more frustrated and discouraged. You could end up losing both the over-achievers and mediocre workers to other employers and get struck with a workforce that consists largely of slackers.

Symptoms that your culture may be impacting your workers include:

  • Certain workers are tasked with extra assignments while others are not
  • Some employees refuse to take on additional work
  • Some workers seem extremely busy while others seem to have an excess of free time
  • The quality of work by some staff members is consistently better than others
  • Certain employees make more errors, issue more complaints or miss quotas more frequently
  • There is a high turn-over rate in the top performers

Solution:
The reason that the culture is working against your company is improper management and lack of communication. Management may be unaware that the workload is unequally distributed. Alternatively, they may be aware of it, but they play favorites by giving less work to favored employees.

The solution to this issue it to re-evaluate employees and performances objectively. The first step is to determine who are the top performers (or over-achievers), who are the mediocre employees and who are the under-achievers (or slackers.)

Next, look at how the workload is distributed. Often work, is tasked more heavily to the top performers because these employees are more dependable, are not prickly and the quality of their work is always superior. While this may work well for managers in terms of meeting deadlines, accountability and customer satisfaction, it can lead to quick burn-out and often moral issues with over-achieving workers. To solve this matter, work must be distributed more equally and recognition programs (such as incentives) should be put in place to reward the extra effort of top performers.

Mediocre workers are often workers who need additional mentoring, coaching and recognition.  They often do not feel appreciated, may lack adequate training, or simply are not being heard.  Taking extra time to work with them on goals and objectives and giving them opportunities through workload redistribution can help them experience time in the limelight and re-energize their passion for work, increase productivity and improve overall morale.

Under-productive or slacker employees require clear boundaries. This may include written improvement plans with goals or targets with measurable objectives they must reach within a certain timeline. If they do not improve their productivity, they may be suited for employment elsewhere.

Managers may also have to analyze their own feelings toward certain employees. This may require adapting stylistic changes to management that recognizes that leadership is not always meant for making friends. Rather, it is meant for gaining the respect of the team as a whole. It can be a difficult line to walk, but it is critical if workers are to remain productive and the culture fair, balanced and positive for employees.

Common Issue #2:
Managers Hate Conflict 

Most people do not enjoy conflict. In fact, many do their best to avoid it. When you are a leader, this is not an option. That said, some managers avoid conflict like the plague. They fear conflict, want to be liked or both. These managers assign the bulk of the work to the over-achievers and refuse to address issues with prickly employees who cause problems. As a result, productivity slows and resentment intensifies among the workforce, magnifying existing problems and turning cracks into destructive craters.

Solution:
Preventing this scenario starts at the hiring process. Instruct your human resources personnel to qualify job candidates according to their previous management successes. Ferret out candidates who cannot verify their successes with hard numbers or references. People who have had demonstrated success in a manager role likely do not fear conflict.

What do you do about your current managers? As with slacker employees, do not give up on them until you have given them a fair shot. Meet one-on-one with them to get to the bottom of their conflict related anxiety. Make it clear to them that you are happy to support their efforts to overcome it and provide them with the resources to do so. Take it a step further by providing annual leadership training for managers.

Common Issue #3:
Managers Micro-manage 

Being too hard on employees is also detrimental. Some managers have an “it-is-my-way-or-the-highway” attitude that makes it nearly impossible for employees to complete their work in an efficient way. These managers hover and are constantly inserting themselves during the process. Not all these managers are harsh, but many are, as they believe they know best in every single situation.

Being treated poorly breeds resentment among employees and makes it tempting for them to give up on doing good work altogether because they feel it is impossible to please their manager. 69 percent of survey respondents said they considered changing jobs because of micro-management. (2)

Solution:
This is another scenario in which providing leadership training is a worthwhile investment. Some micro-managers exhibit their damaging behavior because they truly believe it is in the best interest of the company. That said, some micro-managers are just on a power trip. If leadership training fails for any of these managers, the next step is to have a serious discussion with them. If this conversation yields no results, take disciplinary action to drive it home. In the worst-case scenario, if disciplinary action does not motivate the manager to change their behavior, you may need to strongly consider replacing them.

As you can see, establishing a positive company culture demands a bit of extra time, effort and resources. However, by making these investments, you set your organization up for long-term success by ensuring that employees are happy and motivated.

For more information about how Gavel International can help your organization through outsourced meeting planning, event and travel incentive programs, contact us.

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SOURCES:

1 https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/new_study_shows/

2 https://patimes.org/damaging-effects-micromanagement/

Jeff Richards
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