March 2023 marks The Omnia Group’s 38th anniversary and our 38th year calling Tampa Bay our home. Those who live here know what a special, vibrant community the Tampa Bay area is. We always welcome opportunities to thank our neighbors for making this area so special by giving back in some way.

During the pandemic, our leadership team decided to select an organization that we could contribute to and support with a long-term commitment. We asked our employees to tell us what issue/cause made their hearts sing or ache, and we received close to a unanimous response about concerns for the homeless or unhoused.

We reviewed our options, and because of the important work Habitat for Humanity does in building and strengthening our community, we were eager to partner with the Hillsborough County chapter when the chance arose. They have a local and active presence and a great reputation, and they were one of the organizations that had very little overhead, where donations and work go directly to those who need the benefit, which was really important to us. The leadership team spent a lot of time reviewing various charities looking to avoid ones that had huge overhead with executive salaries and administration fees or were on the toxic charity list. Habitat lived up to its excellent reputation and stood high and above many others.

Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness. It works by partnering with community businesses, volunteers, and recipient families to build safe, decent, and affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity believes in providing “a hand up, not a handout.” The organization also works as advocates to change existing systems and policies which create barriers to safe and affordable housing.

For the past two years, the Omnia Group has donated a portion of our annual profits with a cash donation to Habitat that we send on behalf of our clients (we no longer send a corporate gift to clients), and we are now committed to doing more of these local builds and home preservation programs as an opportunity to get our remote team together where we can bond, put in hard labor together, and leave the day feeling like we’ve made a difference.

When most people think of Habitat for Humanity, they think of its work building new homes for deserving families in need of decent housing. That is their main mission, but did you know Habitat also helps with repairs and restorations?  The Home Preservation Program partners with homeowners and community volunteers and uses donated materials to help eligible homeowners live more independently and securely in their homes. In addition to working alongside volunteers (sweat equity), homeowners repay some of the costs, allowing the program to serve other members of the community. The program is currently open to area veterans only, although there may be additional availability starting next January.

It was a Home Preservation project that brought Omnia’s ten-member team of employees and their family members together with an area veteran and his wife bright and early on the first Saturday of March.

Omnia Habitat for Humanity before

After meeting the Habitat for Humanity representatives and learning the mission (painting the home’s exterior and trim, raking leaves, and helping to remove debris from the yard), the team got to work.

The Omnia team had the opportunity to work closely with the homeowners and get to know them. They also learned new skills, leveraged their existing skills, enjoyed the beautiful Tampa weather, got a great work out, and earned an excellent night’s sleep!

Eager to get the job done, many were able and happy to stay beyond the end of the 2:30 pm scheduled end time to see the finished product.

Naomi Viglas, Sales and Marketing Coordinator, who also coordinated the event, said “I think one of the most special things about participating in a Habitat for Humanity project is getting to work alongside the people who are benefiting from the program. The experience is both rewarding and humbling. Everyone should try to participate at least once.”

Tony Curtachio, volunteer and Omnia’s IT Application and Systems Administrator, found it gratifying to be able to help a veteran by making his family home and property more enjoyable.

The Omnia Group has been honored to take part in a number of wonderful volunteer opportunities from toy drives, shoe drives, harvest gleaning, and mentoring. All have been rewarding, but volunteering with Habitat for Humanity was such a remarkable experience, we hope to repeat it soon.

If you are interested in getting involved with Habitat for Humanity of Hillsborough County, you can visit their website at www.habitathillsborough.org or go to https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/near-you/find-your-local-habitat to find a local branch and  learn more about their programs, volunteer opportunities, and ways to donate.

 

You know how it is. Things are good with your team; everything’s clicking, spirits are high, and productivity is higher… until suddenly it isn’t. Suddenly, things feel off. You’re not sure what’s wrong; you just know something is.

Employee engagement is a measure of how committed and invested an employee is in their job and organization. And we all know that engaged employees are productive employees. They are also less likely to leave your company. So, it’s pretty darn important.

But if it starts to decline, it can be a slippery slope. By the time leadership starts to see and feel the impact, it could take a long time to regain traction and turn the problem around.

So, what do you do when employee engagement starts to dip?

Here are 8 things to do as soon as you see or feel the decline in employee engagement:

1. Figure out what caused the decline.

Like any problem, the best place to start is the root cause. Why is engagement declining? You can do this by conducting employee surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one meetings. Until you know the why behind the downward slide, it could be challenging or even impossible to fix. Plus, the last thing you want to do is waste time going down the wrong path.

2. Make sure communication hasn’t taken a back seat.

Most issues boil down to communication problems. Be sure you have not stopped keeping employees informed. Be clear on the organization’s goals, plans, and progress. As people, we want to be in the know; we need to know what’s going on around us. Open, honest transparency is a foundational requirement of fully engaged teams.

3. Lead by example.

If you want committed, engaged employees, be sure you are engaged and committed as well. Employees will be more inclined to happily follow a positive, engaged leader. Positive energy is infectious…in a good way!

4. Track it.

Be sure to keep your pulse on the engagement of the organization so you always know where it stands. Measure engagement levels using the same methods we discussed in number 1… focus groups, surveys, and one-on-one meetings. Doing this continuously means you’ll see issues before they become full-blown problems and hopefully before they negatively impact engagement.

5. Take action.

When you hear about issues from your employees, take action to resolve them. Knowing is only half the battle. Now, you need a plan to tackle the issue. Nothing happens without effort. When your team sees you take real steps to solve problems, it can’t help but start the rebuilding process.

6. Develop your employees.

Career development is often a high priority for employees. That means if you ignore development, engagement will surely decline. Always give your team opportunities to grow. If they can’t move forward with you, they could look to move forward elsewhere.

And forward motion doesn’t necessarily mean upward motion into leadership. Not everyone wants to lead, but they do want to grow, learn, and provide more value to the organization. It could be a lateral move to a new department. Or it could be adding new levels of expertise to the current role. Internal mobility is a great strategy for development.

7. Support work-life balance.

We might get tired of hearing this phrase, but it’s that important. A burnt-out team is not an effective or productive team. Be sure you are encouraging your staff to disconnect and take time off. Everyone needs to recharge their batteries.

8. Give recognition and rewards.

Look for ways to show appreciation for the contributions and achievements of your team. Motivation is the engine that powers the actions of your team.

That’s why knowing the inherent motivators of the individuals on your team is the key to keeping them engaged.

Most people are familiar with pre-employment personality assessments, but did you know that same tool can be used for talent retention and employee development? An informative, practical tool, like an Omnia behavioral assessment test, gives managers a clear, helpful guide to the personality traits and tendencies of each person on their team. It puts the power to motivate them from a place that is meaningful to them right into your hands.

For example, if you have a shy, detailed person on your team, they are motivated by concrete feedback. They like data and details and can feel disconcerted by public recognition, especially if they are put on the spot with no warning. These individuals can feel that general praise is disingenuous. When looking to recognize one of these team members, be detailed about the task or project. Talk specifically about what went well and why. Consider a private conversation or note. If a public announcement is necessary, let them know that you want to talk about their accomplishment at the meeting so they can fortify their naturally reserved nature. They will appreciate your thoughtfulness more than you know.

On the flip side, competitive social extroverts are extremely motivated by public recognition. They will thrive when called out in a public setting and could find surprises even more exhilarating. That’s not to say you wouldn’t provide details on what went right and why it was valuable — you definitely should — but putting a fun, social spin on the recognition will go a long way. The social aspect is what they will find inspirational.

Everyone loves to be recognized and appreciated, just not in the same way. When leadership takes the time to know what works at an individualized level, it is more meaningful to the employee and a better long-term strategy for keeping the fires of employee engagement stoked.

Plus, the Omnia behavioral assessment is quick, accurate, and user-friendly. In less than 10 minutes, managers and employees have data at their fingertips for opening lines of communication, improving relationships, and understanding their teammates better than ever. A connected team is an engaged team!

You may cringe when you hear the term “codependent relationship” because the phrase has negative connotations. But, while codependency may cause poor team dynamics and productivity disruptions, it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, codependent employees can be incredible assets to your company with a bit of attention and guidance from you. Let’s explore how.

Defining Codependency

Before we get into management strategies, let’s set a working definition of codependency. For our purposes, codependency is the deeply ingrained compulsion to do anything possible to maintain a positive relationship with another party — even at the expense of one’s own needs. Therefore, a codependent employee is someone who prioritizes people-pleasing over all else.

Unfortunately, this craving to be validated and needed by others can be problematic. The tendency may annoy or alienate coworkers. It can also tank the codependent employee’s career. At its worst, it may result in the employee completely losing their sense of self, which can lead to depression, anxiety, and workplace outbursts.

Codependents thrive on feeling like they are being helpful. But, the truth is, they often inadvertently sabotage the person they’re intertwined with, themselves, or both.

What Codependency Looks Like in the Workplace

Not sure if you’ve seen codependency in the office? Here’s what it might look like:

Codependent on a Coworker

When your employee is codependent on a coworker, they may:

Codependent on a Manager

When your employee is codependent on a manager (perhaps you!), they may:

Codependent employees may also take on the role of office mom or dad by organizing celebrations or bringing in treats for everyone.

Helping Codependent Employees

Left unchecked, a codependent employee can do a lot of damage in the workplace. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help them thrive:

1. Validate When Appropriate

Codependents need to feel like they’re useful, helpful, and competent. So, when they do well in their role, you should take the time to praise and thank them for their efforts. Often, codependents perceive that they’re not doing enough or that their work is subpar, so they’ll appreciate the recognition.

2. Reciprocate Kindness

Codependents spend much of their time thinking about and tending to the needs of others, often ignoring their own wants. You can show them they are worthy of caring and consideration by reciprocating their good deeds. That could look like throwing them a birthday party, sending them flowers after a significant event, or bringing them one of their favorite treats.

Caution: Be sure to show the same kindness towards all of your team members to avoid the perception of favoritism.

3. Expand Responsibilities

Your codependent employee could have self-esteem issues and may not trust their abilities. You can help them move past their comfort zone by slowly expanding their responsibilities. Give them clear instructions on how to complete each new duty and be available to answer their questions.

When they complete the task correctly, praise them. When they miss the mark, offer support and additional guidance to help them succeed in their next attempt.

4. Enforce Policies

Your role as a manager is multi-faceted. Yes, you want to support and encourage your employees. But you also have to enforce company policies. Start by reminding your codependent employee about rules pertaining to break times, office gossip, and other expected behaviors. They may just need a refresher. But, if they don’t take the hint, utilize your company’s progressive discipline process as you would with any other team member.

5. Offer Resources

As a company leader, you can only do so much. You’re not a therapist. So, if your employee’s behavior becomes more disruptive or they’ve indicated that they may be having a mental health crisis, it’s appropriate to refer them to the firm’s employee assistance program (EAP) for professional guidance.

Where Omnia Comes In

We’ve developed an effective behavioral assessment to help you get to know your employees on a deeper level. Our fast, accurate personality inventory will yield insights into each team member’s work preferences, motivations, communication style, and more. With this data, you can feel more confident managing your workforce.

Our employee behavioral assessment results enable you to effectively communicate with, motivate, recognize, teach, and lead everyone on your team — including your codependent employee. That way, you can help them mitigate the adverse effects of their codependency and excel in their careers.

Try a complimentary assessment to see the results for yourself!

Workplace trends and buzzwords may have you thinking that 2023 will be all about the word quiet. I mean really – how much more can we take? Everywhere we look there are LinkedIn posts, Tik Tok videos and articles about quiet quitting, quiet firing and quiet hiring.

In a world where employee engagement is at an all-time low, this is no time to be quiet.  The need for open, transparent communication has never been greater. Let’s dig into what employee engagement and motivations trends we should pay attention to in 2023 to make an impact.

First, a little bit of bad news. According to the most recent Gallup surveys, U.S. employee engagement continues to trend downward. After trending up for several years, this was the first annual decline in a decade. According to the most recent data:

Every time I look at this data the group that concerns me the most is the large number in the middle who are neither. They can be swayed either way. In other words, they are coming to work each day, doing the basics of the job, not actively trying to make the company better, but not actively trying to sabotage it either. These are your potential quiet quitters.

Anyone actively disengaged isn’t doing it quietly. Our job as leaders is to make sure we retain, reward and grow the actively engaged, while focusing on what we can do about that group in the middle to keep them positive and productive. Unfortunately, the actively disengaged can take up most of our emotional energy and time on any given day. So ask yourself, where is your time and focus best spent.

Here are 5 things to pay attention to this year to help drive engagement and productivity in your workplace.

#1 Stay flexible with remote and hybrid work policies

There was a lot of talk in 2022 about companies requiring employees to return to the office. Employees went looking for other jobs and shared open willingness to take pay cuts to keep their flexibility with working remotely. I recently heard a job seeker say that the first question they ask of the recruiter is if the job is remote and that they won’t consider anything else.

Gallup’s recent data shows that remote and hybrid workers are more engaged than on-site workers. Employees who work exclusively remote or hybrid tend to have higher levels of engagement (37% engaged in both groups) than those who work exclusively on-site (29% engaged).

Even if your business model doesn’t support a fully remote scenario, companies that take a remote first approach make employees more motivated by seeing their leaders show flexibility. The key to this is also shifting focus from efficiency to effectiveness. It’s no longer about how many hours an employee works, but more about how much value and impact they create.

Organizations are looking at new ways to track and evaluate employee performance. They are shifting from quantity to quality which leads to a win-win scenario where employees feel more valued and trusted, and leaders feel more confident that their employees are doing great work. Which leads us to the next trend of improving people analytics.

 #2 Use data more wisely to understand your people

Google knows that I’m more interested in Jeeps than Volvos and that I’m more likely to click on a picture of a monkey than a cat. Email marketers know that I’m looking at stand up desks and fill my social feeds with suggestions. This same kind of data can be used to help understand when people are most likely to call in sick or what functions have employees feeling most disengaged

The next generation of technology tools use data to shine light on employee productivity, well-being, and satisfaction using A.I. and an innovative combination of collaboration analytics and peer polling for a rich understanding of employees, teams, and their work environments. Visier’s Workplace Trends 2023 report outlines several approaches HR teams and executives can take to let people analytics to do the heavy lifting and leave the guesswork behind.

At the individual level, using behavioral science is critical to understanding what motivates and demotivates your staff. Employee behavioral assessments, such as the Omnia Development Report, provide tremendous insight into how a person prefers to communicate as well as what motivates and demotivates them.

#3 Welcome people-first transparency trends

Experts predict that wage and salary transparency will play a leading role in 2023 workplace dynamics. We continue to see a surge of TikTok salary transparency videos emerging with every kind of professional imaginable sharing what they make for a living.  Seventeen states have implemented laws around payroll transparency with more to come. If you haven’t already, your business should be to address this trend. You can get in front of it by posting open positions that include salary ranges.

Another people-first trend emerging is unlimited PTO and the rise of the four-day work week. These practices may not work for your small or mid-sized business but consider other flexible work arrangements for your staff and get creative by focusing on the quality of work output instead of time.

#4 Manage your managers first

According to a recent study by SHRM, managers were 2x more likely than individual contributors to be looking for a new job. Corporate managers are burning out rapidly finding their jobs 10 times harder than before the pandemic. They’re struggling across the board with staff retention, hiring and team performance. And with the growing focus on the employee, managers are sandwiched between the employee's and the organization's needs.

Front line managers are the key to driving performance, team dynamics, culture, and engagement. In small and medium-sized businesses managers wear multiple hats and are typically asked to not just manage all aspects of their team’s work but perform many of the same functions themselves. When is the last time you brought your front-line leaders into a forum and asked them how they’re doing? Listen to their stories and emphasize helping them first.

#5 Promote physical and mental well-being across the board

Another finding from the Gallup survey shows that engagement is higher for organizations that focus on culture and well-being. Work and life are becoming more blended for your employees and just like the managers, employee burnout continues to rise. Workers who are healthy in body and mind are likely to stay motivated and perform better. They may also be less likely to take sick days.

There are many creative and relatively inexpensive ways to demonstrate your commitment to employee wellness in the workplace. Consider offering gym membership reimbursement or access to meditation apps. Encouraging frequent breaks during the workday. Track time off to be sure people are adequately using their PTO. Offer lunch-and-learn sessions that provide education on well-being, nutrition, and mental health.

And remember, like they say before takeoff, put your oxygen mask on first. Be sure that as you launch into 2023, you are ready mentally and physically for the road ahead.

Omnia is here for you. Whatever your hiring and onboarding challenges, Omnia can help! Our skilled Customer Success team is available to provide guidance throughout the employee lifecycle. Our behavioral assessments are quick, powerful, and now mobile friendly. Let us know how we can help you navigate this evolving world of work and drive success in 2023.

Motivation is defined as the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. That begs the question then, can you really motivate someone else to do something?

When it comes right down to it, motivation is a driving factor in personal achievement. Motivation is what gets you out of bed to go to the gym and lose those extra pounds or pushes you to achieve a sales quota or to get that promotion at work. In short, motivation causes you to act in a way that gets you closer to your goals. It’s a combination of emotional, social, and cognitive forces that activate human behavior.

No doubt, an individual can be self-motivated to change their behavior and accomplish a goal. Yet there are also external factors that can also help support and boost that motivation. For me personally, I’m more inclined to skip the snooze bar and go to the morning workout if I’m meeting a friend. I’m more apt to complete an unwelcome task when I know others are depending on me for a deliverable. A salesperson may be more motivated to make those dreaded cold calls if they know their activity results are going to be posted on every Monday morning Sales Huddle.

It’s likely that all of us have had leaders try to motivate us with positive motivation and negative reinforcement. It can clearly work both ways. It can be used for good to drive productive behavior, and it can be used for bad to drive fear and resentment. Let’s focus on how to use it for good.

5 Questions to Consider for Motivating Individuals

As a leader, you are constantly working on inspiring your workforce. That happens at the team or company level with mass communications and long-term planning with visionary roadmaps. When it comes to motivation, that’s done at the individual level. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself when you’re thinking about motivating individuals to perform at their very best.

1. Is the person in the right job?

People are most likely to be successful when their skill set, experience, and personality traits align with the requirements of the position. When you’re thinking about individuals on your team and how you can motivate them to accomplish specific results, begin with taking a step back to be sure each individual is in the right role.

Start with reviewing the job description and performance measures. Then take a good look at the individual and assess if they are cut out and wired for the job. This is where a behavioral assessment can be helpful. Understanding the individual’s natural traits and tendencies will provide you with powerful insights to tell you how well the person is aligned with the position’s expectations and if they are naturally equipped to achieve them. Omnia professional development reports provide deep insights into an individual’s strengths and traits and how closely they align with expectations of roles including sales and service positions.

2. Are their goals achievable?

There’s nothing worse or more demotivating than feeling like you can’t achieve success in your job. It’s great to set stretch goals for your teams and companies, but if a bar is set too high, it’s unlikely your employees are going to believe their efforts will even pay off, and it can make it hard for them to envision success. It’s also important to make sure the goals are clear and that there’s a mutual understanding of what success looks like. When you’re working with an individual to establish goals, make sure you follow the SMART approach. Create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

3. What matters to the individual?

Research indicates that goals that give an individual the most sustained energy have personal meaning and connect to a larger purpose. If there’s a monetary reward for their goal achievement, take time to find out how that windfall will be used. Is your employee trying to buy a new home or dreaming of a luxury vacation with their loved ones? Continue reminding them of the personal benefits they will get from their success and celebrating that success when achieved. It may sound hokey but sending them pictures of the beaches in Hawaii or getting them a subscription to a home design magazine demonstrates you care about them personally and how their achievement matters as much outside of work as it does to your bottom line.

4. What support do they need to be successful?

Another key to individual success is being sure the person has all the resources they need to perform the role. It’s critical to make sure you’ve provided the proper training and development needed for the role. If they’re running into new and difficult situations that are hard to overcome, such as pricing negotiations or competitive threats, are you offering them new skill development and professional courses to help develop their abilities to overcome these obstacles?

To succeed, an individual also needs to have systems that support them and don’t get in the way of getting the job done. It sounds basic, but is their computer reliable? Does their technology support their daily productivity? Are systems and processes set up to assist them vs. providing daily interruptions with unnecessary procedures that get in the way of doing the job? Before you establish that new requirement or process for your CRM, ask yourself if it’s truly going to support the success of your employee and be clear how it will be used.

It's also important that you are available (or make others available) to model, support, coach and develop individual success. Consider how often you need to observe the person performing their job tasks, and consistently offer 1x1 coaching that’s focused on positive reinforcement and developmental support. Leaders can be stretched pretty thin these days, so you can also consider teaming up senior people with newer people, and providing playbooks, videos and templates that visually show successful methods for performing the various aspects of the job.

5. What truly motivates or demotivates this individual?

Every individual is unique when it comes to what motivates and inspires them. If you have a clear picture of their personality traits and preferences, you can tap into the heart of their personal motivation. This is where a behavioral assessment can also be helpful. All Omnia reports include a section that outlines motivational strategies to use and demotivators to avoid for each personality style. For example, if you have an individual who is highly assertive (a tall column 1 on the Omnia Behavioral Assessment), they are going to be motivated by performance-based incentives like commission, bonuses, and sales contests. If the individual has a tall column 7, they are going to want the freedom to define their goals and achieve them in their own way. The individual with a tall column 8 will thrive with structured guidelines for work output, clear directions from management, and frequent reassurance from management when expectations are being met.

No two individuals are alike, and each of us are motivated by different things that matter individually to us. Taking the time to consider these key factors for every individual on your team and putting these practices into everyday actions will make all the difference in your business success.

Omnia is here to help. Contact our team to find out how you can use our professional development reports to discover the key traits of your employees and how best to motivate them.

Let’s set the scene: It’s a dark and stormy Tuesday. You walk into the office and look out over the workspaces of your staff. They are engaging in their typical banter as they start their day. Everything seems fine, until another member of the department comes through the door. Then the collective demeanor of your team changes, and the atmosphere seems to shift and grow cold. The buzz of conversation has turned into eerie silence, and the only noise you hear is the clacking of keyboards. Your previously upbeat employees have turned into zombies! No, not those type of zombies, but the kind who sit at their desks showing depleted motivation and dissatisfaction, just waiting for the day to be over. What could have happened to cast such a pall over your workforce? Or maybe the better question starts with Who?

Managing people isn’t for the faint of heart, even when you have a team of positive, productive employees. Managing a challenging employee is even harder. Even when that difficult staff member is meeting their KPIs and performance targets, they can bring down the mood and morale of the group with a negative attitude or disrespectful actions. This type of employee is like the mystery villain of a scary movie who is revealed to be part of the group the whole time, causing problems from the inside. Cue dramatic music.

The silver lining is that this doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Difficult employees can often be transformed (or at least improved) with thoughtful planning, diplomacy and, perhaps, some tough love, and this can do wonders for your environment and team.

Before taking steps to turn a challenging employee around, make sure your organization has established policies regarding how you expect staff to conduct themselves and treat others. Clearly define the organization’s core values as well as the negative behaviors that are not acceptable. Ensure these policies are put in writing and communicated to all employees. Then, if someone does not follow your standards, it’s not just a subjective or emotionally based matter but a performance issue to be addressed.

Also, understand it is ultimately your responsibility as the manager to address the employee’s unwanted behavior. Not doing so is equal to training them that the behavior is acceptable which will all but guarantee it will continue. The employee’s colleagues may be willing to set team norms for the group and give constructive feedback, but in the end, the manager is the person who must initiate and enforce changes.

1. Focus on observable, specific behaviors

It’s not enough to say that an employee “seems irritable” during every meeting. Document exactly what the person says and does that causes issues (e.g. eye-rolling, interrupting, complaining, gossiping). If the employee is not meeting their job goals or completing assignments, be specific in documenting them as well. Keeping a detailed log of problems including dates will also be helpful if HR is required to get involved at a later time.

2. Meet with the employee one-on-one to address these observations

Speaking with the individual, preferably face to face, is the key to getting to the bottom of the issues and bringing them to resolution. Plan the meeting at a time when you will not be interrupted or distracted to show that you are committed to addressing and correcting the issues with the employee. Frame the behavior problems as a performance issue by reminding the employee of the organization’s policies and code of conduct for how personnel are expected to act in the workplace.

3. Foster open communication

The way you phrase your observations can either encourage an open dialogue or create defensiveness in the employee, so be cognizant of speaking in a way that conveys you are there to help rather than to accuse. For example, instead of telling the person that you’ve noticed they have missed several meetings and waiting for their reply, say that you are wondering what has happened to cause the employee to miss the meetings. Allow the employee to speak freely rather than prejudging why the issues are happening, and keep the discussion targeted toward the behaviors rather than the individual’s character. Some people might not realize how their behavior is coming across and impacting others, and they will want to make positive changes. But for others…

4. Expect pushback

Some employees will deny or want to debate, so be prepared for that possibility, but don’t take the bait. If the person becomes argumentative, calmly tell them this is not a debate but rather a discussion on the specific behaviors and on how to address them. Most difficult employees will not change their ways overnight, so be consistent about your expectations and the repercussions if improvements aren’t made. It may take time and persistence on your part before the individual fully realizes they cannot continue with their behavior.

5. Involve the employee in creating an improvement plan

Though you can guide the conversation, let the employee be integral in solving their own behavior issues. Assure them you will be there to help and support them but that the work is ultimately theirs to do. Also, tell the employee that you both will meet on a regular basis to discuss progress, setbacks, and any other issues that arise so the person understands they will be held accountable.

6. Understand your employee’s traits

Knowing your employees’ motivators and preferences beforehand can make a big difference in how you develop behavior improvement plans and potentially in the effectiveness of those plans. Omnia’s behavioral assessment can help you dig into what makes your employee tick and may give possible indicators about why the person is acting out. A tall column 1 on the Omnia assessment indicates an individual who needs ongoing challenges and chances to pursue ambitious personal goals. However, if this person is in a low-key background role, they might feel frustrated and stifled, which could be the cause of some unwanted behaviors. Conversely, if your employee who has a tall column 2, which suggests caution and a desire to collaborate with the team, is required to take the lead and make far-reaching decisions, then this person might display absenteeism or put off handling responsibilities that feel risky to them.

As a reminder, it’s important to let the employee explain for themselves what is causing their behavior but having this background knowledge can be hugely beneficial to resolving it.

7. Avoid potential difficult employees from the start

Put behavioral insights to good use in your hiring practice by using hiring assessments. Understanding the internal motivators and intrinsic behaviors a person is likely to display on the job can help ensure you put the right people in the right roles. And an employee whose natural traits align with their job responsibilities is less likely to turn into a ghoulish addition to your team.

If, after trying all of these tips, your employee still does not improve, it may be time to go your separate ways. Enlist help from HR to ensure an employee dismissal is handled appropriately.

Using these tricks might not always feel like a treat at first, but helping a difficult employee improve may help the person become a more valuable member of your staff and breathe new life into your team’s work atmosphere.

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