How To Deal With Problem Employees

In any kind of firm, we will be facing a few people that we categorize as problem employees. They are the ones that we find difficult to deal with, producing output not fit to standards, habitually tardy, and sometimes just plain burdensome to retain. No matter what we do, we always seem to get at least one of this kind of employee. But why is that? We were pretty sure that the company’s hiring procedures are flawless and are sure to bring in the best among all the applicants. They have the right credentials and working experience. They should be more than capable of understanding the office procedures. But why is it that despite all of these, we still seem to get problem employees?

For supervisors who constantly are troubled by unproductive employees, they must first understand where the problem employees are having difficulties and the reason why. Instead of assuming that the employee is simply not just cut out for the job and pondering about how to remove them from the company at the soonest time possible, they must first realize the problem: did they really hire unqualified employees? Did they assign them properly? Are they lacking the proper tools and equipment to get the job done? Firing employees entails a lot of cost even if it does not seem so. When an employee is terminated, the company then has to spend for posting want ads to attract potential replacements, sacrifice time of the employment officers which could have otherwise be spent on other critical functions, spend for their training, and again face the risk of possibly admitting what they think is another unfit employee. Before you make the final judgment, here are a few questions you might want to take note of:

1. Reason. Have you conducted a thorough investigation during the instances that the employee in question? Was it really his fault or was it a collective fault that ultimately landed on him in the end? Was he fully trained for the task? Was he fully oriented on what he should do? Was he supplied the proper materials? Are his colleagues telling the truth? Is he telling the truth? Sometimes, we put the blame on the person last handling the item with defect even if he was not the primary culprit. Before we make any decision regarding the problem employee, we must first find out the real reason behind the problems that we think he has caused.

2. Function. Is the function’s work-load doable by single person? Was the problem employee in a position that has functions that are supposedly to be done by more than one employee? Was the function not sufficiently supervised? Were the defects from his work tolerated? Was he assigned in the right position given his qualifications and application results? Were the instructions given clearly and directly? Sometimes, the root of all problems of the employee in question is miscommunication. Perhaps, he was thinking that he was doing the tasks properly, given that no one was telling him that they were not, and no one seem to mind — well, that is until this point in time when you are considering whether or not to fire him.

In cases where employees have the aptitude, it would be better for the company to spend its money on training instead of recruitment. Competence is different for every position. We may be thinking that he was just as good as the rest of your employees during the interview, but his position and task might not be the same as the rest we are comparing him to.

3. Succession. Can the company handle productions without the problem employee? How long can the company function properly with one less person? Is there anyone in the firm that can take over the functions of the problem employee? Does the company have the financial capacity to post new ads for hiring replacements? If the problem employee only performs clerical functions, then finding a replacement would be easy. However, the more critical the functions, the harder it is to find a new person to take over. More so if the position is imbued with trust, like in the case of managers and supervisors. If you think that firing him would do more harm for the company than retaining him, you might want to consider other option such as training, or closer supervision.

Problem employees will always be part of the challenges of management and there is an infinite variety of reasons of why there are so. There is no perfect solution nor would the best approach before remain relevant now. People, unlike the laws of science, change and each person is different and so extreme care must be taken in making generalizations. To success-fully cope, management must always be thinking of ways to handle this perennial problem. Hard work and not magic formulas or the latest buzz words are far more effective.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. Manila Bulletin, C-6, Sunday, February 21, 2016. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.