Employee Relations and Performance Improvement

Employee Relations and Performance Improvement

Some common phrases we hear from many managers today are:

“These kids don’t have a work ethic…”
“These people just want a paycheck…they don’t want to work for it…”
“I’m sick and tired of people calling in sick…you’d think in this economy people would be worried about their jobs…”
“What does it take to get people to take SOME kind of initiative?”

And the comments go on…So, why is it so difficult for organizations to improve employee performance?

There are a variety of reasons:

  • Lack of clear organizational goals and alignment across the organization
  • Lack of clear direction from supervisors about work tasks to be performed and deadlines
  • Poor leadership behavior:  supervisors and managers not following through, not providing adequate feedback and recognition, and/or failing to delegate properly
  • Rapid organizational changes with poor planning and execution of changes. Employees anxious and uncertain, and in some cases in a state of paralysis with performance
  • A poorly designed performance management system.  People perform as they are measured and rewarded.  And, if the measurement is skewed or biased, or the rewards are not robust enough–or consistent enough, performance will remain the same, but usually will decline.

So, what are employers to do?  Call us.  We can help.

We have decades of experience in improving employee performance–and doing it through providing sound, practical HR management consulting and leadership and employee development programs.

We’ll get started by first asking you a lot of questions to understand the root problems.   We’ll then talk with groups of employees to find out “what’s going on” in the organization and we’ll get some baseline measurements regarding the current state of the organization’s performance.   And, we’ll ask you what you want to see “happen” regarding changes in employee performance.  For some clients it may be that employee conflicts are an everyday occurence and customers are complaining of rude employees.  In that situation, perhaps conflict management training or customer service training may be the answer. Or, it could be something as simple as clarifying employee roles and responsibilities.  If roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined, people will tend to step on each other’s toes and create conflicts.   However, more often than not, when we work on a project, the solution to employee performance problems is usually providing leadership development training.   Poor employee performance is usually a symptom of a larger problem:  supervisors and managers who are “managing” and not leading.

To get your employee performance where you want it to be, give us a call at   (561) 208-6480  or go to our Contact Page to send us an email to request more information.

Employee Development Programs

THE CONFLICT DYNAMICS WORKSHOP (Half-day Workshop) (back to the top)

Key Learning Objectives:

  • To improve skills in managing conflict by identifying current destructive behaviors
  • To educate employees regarding the various responses to conflict and the negative impacts on peers, workplaces, and organizations
  • To educate employees on how to modify their conflict resolution behaviors from destructive to constructive on a daily basis
  • To improve overall interpersonal relationship-building skills both on the job and off

The workplace today is filled with a lot of negativity, employees who suffer from low self-esteem, and employers who have promoted leaders based on technical ability vs. their exceptional people skills and ability to resolve conflicts. Most supervisors practice “avoidance” strategies in the hope that employee squabbles and conflicts will simply go away—however they never do—and they only get worse as time goes on. This four-hour workshop provides employees (and leaders) with the ability to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in handling conflict. They’ll learn how to identify active and passive responses to conflict as well as responses that are constructive—and destructive. They’ll acquire valuable skills to modify behavior from destructive responses to constructive–that will ultimately improve peer and supervisor relationships, minimize internal complaints, and improve productivity. This is an essential workshop for clients who employ a greater percentage of non-exempt employees, as this population is typically an organization’s source for the most internal complaints to HR. For clients who employ more exempt level employees, the Conflict Dynamics Workshop provides valuable skills in working more collaboratively on project teams and gets employees to overcome “turf” wars and departmental barriers. Furthermore, employees develop better conflict resolution skills in working with customers, thus increasing customer and client satisfaction and ultimately profitability.

Prior to attending the Conflict Dynamics Workshop, employees will complete an online assessment of the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP). This assessment enables them to answer questions regarding their behavior during conflicts to identify their current pattern of behavior. The CDP is available in two report formats: an individual report format, which the employee will assess his/her own skills and a 360 degree formatted report in which co-workers and the employee’s immediate supervisor evaluates current conflict resolution skills. The 360-degree CDP compares how employees see themselves when handling conflict vs. how others see them. This process is very much an “eye opener” for a lot of employees who perceive themselves as possessing good conflict resolution skills. Through comparing how others view them against their own results, employees gain valuable insight into how to adjust their behavior to more constructive responses in order to improve relationship building and collaboration skills.

conflict2

COMMUNICATION: BEHAVIORAL STYLES AND PATTERNS (Half-day Workshop)

Learning Objectives:

  • To examine the behavior of team members and how their behavior affects the team and work environment
  • To identify behavioral strength themes and patterns
  • To learn how to indentify and adapt to other team members’ behavior styles to build and strengthen relationships
  • Exploring the Equation
    • Understanding How Behavior Styles and Communication = Peak Performance
    • D.i.S.C. Profile Introduction
    • Discussion of Strength Theme, Behavioral Pattern, Strengths, Weaknesses
    • Leveraging the knowledge of the D.i.S.C. to improve team dynamics and relationships
    • Trio Activity: Interpretation of results and personal action planning

The DiSC Classic Profile is a behavioral personality assessment. DiSC is based on the work of William Moulton Marston, the developer of the DiSC Model. Marston’s model examined the behavior of “normal” people and dhow their behavioral preferences are affected by their personalities, environment, or situation they find themselves in. This four quadrant behavioral personality profile test provides an understanding of people through awareness of temperament and behavioral styles. The DiSC Profile is a learning instrument designed to help people realize to what degree they utilize each behavior style. DiSC provides feedback to help people and organizations build productive teams and develop effective leadership.