This employee retention speaker and employee retention expert hears this type of comment when I am doing employee retention workshops or when speaking on employee retention to associations. This problem has been going on for ages. Generally, organizations work around the difficult employee. This creates animosity amongst good employees and destroys the credibility of HR and the leader of the difficult employee. So, it’s time to deal with these types of issues because one of the main reasons people quit an organization is their teammates. Dealing with the difficult employee enhances your employee retention strategies.
If you have employees quitting because they can’t stand working with people like this, then perhaps you need to address the issue with the difficult employee. Here is the hard part. We are often afraid to do so because the difficult employee is often difficult not only with their co-workers but with their boss and HR. As a young HR Leader, I struggled with this issue. Then, I was fortunate to have a boss that showed me how to deal with the difficult employee. He showed this employee retention author a way to shift my mindset, so it was easier to do so.
My boss knew that I cared about employees. He knew I wanted the best for people, even the difficult people. He explained that too many leaders avoided this issue which was impacting their good people and that avoiding the issue was not helping the difficult employee as well. He told me to express to the difficult employee that I was bringing it up because I did care and that I wanted to see this person grow as a person and as an employee. To avoid the issue was doing the difficult employee a disservice. So, that is how he told me to frame it.
This employee retention trainer thought about it and when I first tried it this is what I told the difficult employee. “Steve, I want to bring up the fact that nobody wants to work with you because you are sarcastic and demeaning. I’m bringing it up because I care about you as a person and as an employee. I don’t know if anyone has ever told you this, but I feel I owe it to you to bring it up.” The employee was shocked. Did he necessarily want to hear it? No. But the fact that I was doing it because I cared actually had him listening instead of being turned off. We talked through it.
Using the “C” in the C.R.A.P. Philosophy (Caring, Respect, Appreciation, Praise) worked! Not only did he listen, he started working on his behavior. If you have someone who nobody wants to work with adopt the C.R.A.P. Philosophy. Remember what I always say…”C.R.A.P. Works!
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager or an owner of an organization, call me at 414-305-9626 or email me at jeff@jeffkortes.com and I can explain how the C.R.A.P approach can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
