Managing Staff Negativity

Staff engagement is crucial to a company’s success. It can be the difference between a high-performing business achieving outstanding results and one that struggles to meet its goals. One of the most significant challenges for Business Owners and Managers is managing staff effectively. If not done correctly, it can have a major impact on your business. Negativity among staff members can go from bad to worse very quickly, affecting the team performance and the overall culture of your company.  If left unaddressed, before you know it, this can lead to your company becoming dysfunctional, affecting your profits and customer satisfaction. Worse yet, your best employees might leave, and you may start facing issues like Workcover claims.

Understanding what triggers negativity in your staff is essential, as it can directly affect your company’s performance. We recommend that you start by looking inward and think about why negativity might be present. Is there a lack of leadership, direction, or structure within your company? Are some staff simply not passionate about their work or not interested in working for the business? Maybe they aren’t challenged enough and have become complacent. It’s also possible that they dislike recent changes or communication within your company.

There could be many reasons why staff become negative. Often, they may not see the bigger picture of what the company is trying to achieve and focus only on what’s in it for them. They might feel undervalued or entitled to something you’re unaware of. If your company lacks solid goals linked to a strong sense of purpose, then you might find some of your team members may not enjoy their roles. Some staff can become complacent or even disengaged in a company, but they are happy to stay on as no one is addressing their concerns, attitude, or poor behaviour. Unfortunately, some managers avoid addressing poor behaviours out of fear of conflict and the emotions that can come with it.

When there is a lack of leadership, company direction or vision, staff can become disengaged. Too many changes too quickly without clarity, buy-in, or not having any form of consultation can also contribute to negativity. Personality clashes, where some employees have stronger opinions than others, and staff not getting along, can create tensions that are difficult to manage. When there is a lack of performance conversations and proper performance reviews, staff may feel that your company is lacking structure, process, and care factors. This can accelerate especially when staff contribute, and there is a lack of recognition or appreciation.

When there is staff negativity within a business, staff issues accelerate impacting overall performance and bottom-line profits. Some of these issues can stem from a poor recruitment choice or a poor induction process. We understand that Business Owners and Managers can be time-poor, but they let the operation of their business down by being reactive and neglecting these aspects of the business. When frustration sets in, communications can become harsh, and if a manager speaks to employees in a threatening manner, this can be very damaging.

There is no excuse for poor staff behaviour, especially staff who are negative and dragging your company down. Addressing these issues is crucial for maintaining a positive, productive workplace and the long-term success of your business.

Strategies for Addressing Negative Staff

Here are some effective strategies to help address negativity among your staff:

Company Strategy: Develop a strong strategic plan that aligns everyone with the company’s goals and vision. This plan should provide a clear pathway forward that everyone understands and follows. Setting goals and objectives with specific timelines creates motivation and team engagement for achievement.

Good Communication: Effective communication is key to keeping everyone up to date and on the same page with how and why you do things within your company. It also helps leaders to guide their teams with focus and clarity. By improving communication, you can delegate tasks and create ownership among your staff.

Performance Discussions: Most employees want to know how they are performing and what they can do to improve. These discussions help identify areas for training and development that will benefit the company with more skilled employees. Discussions will also address the negative staff members, helping them understand what is required of them.

Staff Engagement Surveys: Conducting surveys, especially when they are anonymous, can provide valuable information. Knowing how your staff feels about the company, communication, team culture, and how they are being led and managed by their leaders, will give you great insight into the areas that may need attention.

Personality Profiling: Getting everyone to work together as one cohesive team can be challenging. Learning how colleagues operate and perform through understanding their team members’ personalities provides valuable information enabling better communication and teamwork.

Team Building: Team building events are about learning more about each other and strengthening relationships among colleagues. These activities demonstrate that as a company, you value your team and that you want them to work collaboratively where team members support one another.

Human Resources – HR Process: Having a solid HR structure is about ‘Best Practice’. This includes having proper documentation, processes, and systems in place to set clear standards addressing performance and behaviour expectations, allowing you to be proactive rather than reactive.

In 2022 and 2023, the Fair Work Ombudsman released updated Legislation on Positive Duty, Pay Secrecy, Psychosocial and Mental Health. It’s important to consider that having negative staff or a negative team can lead to serious issues like Bullying, Harassment, Unfair Dismissal, Adverse Action Claims, and General Protection Claims to Workcover cases.  These challenges add significant stress to a Business Owner or Manager in running a team.

Key Business Advisors has a proven model that spans over 16 years. Let us help you deal with the emotions of change, and more importantly, deal with some of the HR/IR Compliance if you need to move people on. Most importantly, you need a company to hold you and your leaders accountable to grow your business.

At Key Business Advisors we have an amazing team that delivers results, that are aligned with our mission, vision, values, and purpose.  We take our clients from good to great because we become embedded in our client’s business through the services we provide, covering all aspects of employee engagement and performance. We have a proven model that results in building great client relationships all over Australia.

To learn more about our company and access FREE resources to help your business grow and get to the next level:

• Key Business Advisors – keyba.com.au
• KBA Business Strategy & Growth – https://keyba.com.au/business-advice-strategy-and-growth/
• KBA People & Culture – https://keyba.com.au/people-culture-business/
• KBA HR Advice and Support – https://keyba.com.au/hr-advice-support/
• KBA Professional Sales Training – https://keyba.com.au/professional-sales-training/

At KBA, we are passionate about taking businesses from good to great. If you need assistance in enhancing performance through a strong organisational culture, please don’t hesitate to contact us today!

If you would like to explore our services further or require assistance, please reach out to Key Business Advisors on 1300 4 ADVICE