Employees are magical creatures; they hold the power to make life a breeze and dreams come true! Unfortunately, there are occasions where that magic dies, and this can lead to a nightmare, not only for you but your team and customers, as well.
If you are lucky, when the magic fades, your employees’ lethargic love and newfound frustrations will lead them to depart of their accord. Resignation is the best-case scenario. However, sometimes you have to take action and use your powers to end a fading work relationship.
If you are engaged in employee development with the wish to see your team succeed, this can lead you to ask what went wrong. “How did I not pick up on their poor work ethic during the interview?” “Did they complete their training?” “I had no idea they were unhappy.” “Is this just who they are or have I missed an opportunity to facilitate success?”
Here are some tips to keep those questions at bay and keep the magic alive in your company—prior to hiring, during employment, and when you need to make someone “disappear.”
Be sure to check references. Don’t cut corners! Checking references can take time, but they are a necessary part of understanding what type of rabbit you are pulling out of the hat. It is especially important to question references during the interview process. Ask to speak with an employer who is not listed. If the job candidate doesn’t want you to, ask why.
When talking to a past employer, use creative questions to find out about candidates’ strengths and weaknesses to get more tangible answers: What areas for development were highlighted during their last employee review? Is there an alternative role in your company that would be better suited to their strengths? Would this employee be the go-to person to assist in training a new team member? All these answers should paint an accurate picture free of smoke and mirrors.
Don’t rush, don’t settle. As in most relationships, we hope a new working one will be for keeps. Staff turnover can be stressful and costly, but it is somewhat inevitable. Do your best to have open conversations with your employees about their career plans so you can give yourself as much time as possible to find their replacement.
At the end of the day, don’t settle. Wait to find an employee you are excited about hiring. If you are struggling to find the right fit, it is best to keep your team in the loop. Gauge how they are handling the workload and ask if they can get on board with holding out for a fit that is more likely to last. After all, high turnover will affect them as much as you. If you are on the fence with a potential employee, think about getting your key players involved in the process. If you get buy-in from them to give someone an opportunity, there will be more support during the training period.
Stop chucking people in at the deep end! You probably have been caught in this scenario before, and may even have been through it yourself as a new hire at some point: learning on the go, fake it ’til you make it style. Sometimes the best-laid plans for training get scrapped, and it’s straight to the deep end they go! The biggest danger here probably happens when the new team member handles this well. Prior experience and good use of initiative kicks in, and the training plan suddenly is forgotten. This may be fine in the short term, but often leads to massive gaps down the road. As much as new employees glory in the opportunity to show you they are capable, it is also essential to show them you want to invest in their success. This early stage in the relationship will build a firm foundation, which you may need to fall back on when asking more from them down the road. Take the time, spend the money, do the training. Use checklists and review the checklists. Have procedures available for them to reference, and document their performance.
You also should do your best to spend some hands-on time with your new arrivals, so you are aware of how things are going from their perspective. Write down their feedback as they could have some insight that will lead to improvements for training the next magic maker. Direct communication will give you a better sense of how their energy is fitting with the rest of the team, and also give you the opportunity to coach and praise their trainer. Ensuring the training is high quality should be a top priority. The goal should be to keep things as stable as possible; keep them aware of your limitations, but ask what more can be done, NOW, while there is still time to make a difference.
Rethink probation. The probationary period probably is not used the way that it should be. We allow time to escape us and suddenly, our chance to revisit the employment terms have lapsed and things just got more complicated. The first thing to do is set out clear expectations. Break down the three months and set goals for them to reach. Failure is an inevitable part of the process, but there also has to be progress. Results should become consistent when learning has taken place. By revisiting the milestones you set, documenting and making their performance measures clear, no one is blindsided in three months’ time.
Establishing job performance is not the only thing that needs to be monitored. Their probation period also should provide ample time for them to settle and find their place among the team. You should not rely on your interpretation of this alone. There will be many opinions available to determine if they are contributing and becoming part of the community. Having regular sit-downs with both new and current employees will ensure everyone is doing their best to create an environment for the magic to thrive. Finally, if the magic just isn’t there, the best choice could be to let them go, while the terms of their probation still allow it to happen.
Don’t be afraid to pay severance. Even after all of this, sometimes, your hopes and dreams for an employee don’t come to fruition. At some point, they took a bite of the poison apple and there is nothing you can do to fix it. Don’t be afraid to pay severance or work with an attorney to get them out. Poison within your organization will be much more costly in terms of staff morale and time than any severance you will have to pay. By this point, there should be a clear history of the challenges documented: employee reviews, performance measures, and any disciplinary action forms. Keeping these records on file is a crucial ingredient when a disappearing act needs to take place.
These are all simple and possibly obvious points, but it takes time and effort from all parties to keep the magic show rolling. So don’t neglect the practical side that comes with managing your new employees, be active in making it happen, and you will no longer question where the magic’s at.
Rachel Bailey is a training and instructional design associate for Oculus Training, a British Columbia-based corporate training and mystery shopping company offering sales management, reservations, sensitivity, and customer service training programs for a variety of service-based industries throughout Canada, the U.S., and the world. For more information, call 888.OCULUS4 or visit www.oculustraining.com. You also can connect with Oculus on Twitter @oculustraining, via e-mail at peoplecare@oculustraining.com or visit it on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.
