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Day Off

Bad Employees: How to Handle them?

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An image of two female employee discussing a matter in their office

In every group or company, at least one individual lacks morale, low productivity, bad performance, bad attitude & behavior, and refusal to go by the rules. It is inevitable for leaders to deal with complicated employees at some point. Therefore, you must know how to handle difficult employees effectively. The Day off app plays a significant role in tracking the employee’s performance, which is why most HR professionals utilize it to identify undisciplined employees. Below are some proven strategies for providing solutions for dealing with bad employees.   

Criticize the employee’s behavior, not the person itself

While dealing with problematic employees, it’s better to not judge them as a person but focus only on specific behavior. It would prevent you from having any unproductive conflict with the said employee, which would not resolve their behavior. Since people are not often aware of how their behavior impacts their work and environment, you should bring it to their attention in a non-confrontational way. Show them examples of how their negative behavior is impacting the team and help them understand the problem. The reason might be poor communication, time management, and many more that lead to poor performance. Therefore, you should invest in a leave tracker to address these issues. Most HR personnel use a PTO tracker to monitor employees’ performance in their role, and the employer knows timely to manage them.

Identify the causes of your problem.

It would be best if you found the reasons behind the employee’s behavior. You can only address the problem effectively if you can diagnose the issues by identifying the causes. It might be about their work, issues with other colleagues, or any personal reasons that prevent them from showing their full potential while performing tasks adequately. As the employer, you should take responsibility for finding the root cause of their bad behavior. You can have your HR manager look into the matter and report to you. It would help if you integrated your company network with PTO tracking software to monitor the uncomplicated employees. If some troubling employees are taking leaves unasked, a vacation tracker would be very helpful for them to identify them. You can inquire about these issues with the said employee to resolve them. 

Give appropriate behavioral feedback

The majority of managers can spend months only complaining about the poor performance of the employees. But more than complaining, the troubled employee might benefit by getting some genuine feedback on what they should do differently to avoid causing the problem in the team because of their actions. Although giving behavioral feedback can be uncomfortable for the manager, it would not be awkward for the team if it’s reasonably done. When confronting the employee, it can trigger their defensiveness, so that this reasonable approach would prove very helpful. Use the employee time off tracker to look at their performance record and give them specific insight and instruction to improve their performance. Also, the manager should be open to receiving feedback. The reason could be about the company’s management style or any problem with the organization. Incorporating an employee leave tracker app also helps the employees to give feedback on the organizational system so that the manager can be aware of the employee’s opinions on the management system. 

Inform them about the expectations and consequences

As a team manager, you need to mention the instructions to be followed effectively without any misunderstandings. Once you have confronted the difficult employee, document your expectations for their behavioral changes; work with your HR management to develop a plan that establishes your objectives and a timeframe for them to work on their behavioral change. The HR team can evaluate the regular progress, document it on the Day of app, and report it to you. There should be mentions of consequences if the employee fails to abide by the instructions. 

Discuss with your HR management

Evaluate their progress by getting feedback from other coworkers. Evaluate the quality of their work and conducting personal meetings to get more transparency on their behavioral change. All these actions can be done over free time off the tracker. Sudden negative feedbacks coming from the team manager can cause tension in the whole team and upset them. Thus, you should stay calm and avoid judgmental critics. Give importance to facts to maintain honesty, professionalism and show a respectful attitude, or the employee might get discouraged. If the evaluation is not a success, it’s wise to discuss the matter with HR management. The HR team would implement company policy to deal with such issues—HR managers are professional at advising how to handle a difficult conversation with your employee.

Identify the demotivating factors

While dealing with an unmotivated employee, start by giving them the benefit of the doubt. Identify what factors are demotivating them to change their attitude. Check through the time off the app to see if your employee has too much work and less work. See if the employee is already fed off with their regular work and requires a new challenge. Estimate the employee’s skills that are required for the new potential task. Discuss with the employee to know if they require adjustment with their job description, should you relieve them of a heavy workload, or do they need specific training to perform on a task? Lack of motivation can develop disruptive behavior in fellow employees and create a toxic work environment. Employees can feel burdensome approaching the manager or the HR team when they require to leave, giving out any feedback, or redefining something about their assigned tasks. Thus, it would be best to encourage your employees to utilize a free vacation tracker, which is integrated with many other services to effectively manage employees.

No employer wants to increase the rate of their company’s employee turnover by terminating an employee. However, a bad employee with no intention of showing development can negatively affect your office environment as well as your company’s reputation. Thus, you must learn to let them go if you are unable to handle their bad behavior. Consult with your HR manager to get advice and information on your company policy to terminate the employee.