Q.  I tend to be wary of conflicts at work and avoid them. Of course, I know issues underlying conflicts don’t simply go away and larger problems can result. Still, I tend to avoid conflict when I can. What might cause supervisors not to face conflicts? How can we change?

A.  Sometimes avoiding conflict is a good thing, but many people mistake managing conflict for ignoring it or shying away from it. This is called conflict mismanagement. Fear of anger or fear of feeling “connection” is often the culprit in mismanaging conflicts. Connection in this context means closeness or demands on you to be open, honest, and authentic as a partner in resolving conflicts. Supervisors may not be equally proficient in these relationship skills. For some people, genuineness feels risky, particularly if their personal histories include negative experiences with vulnerability. If you learned that conflict leads to violence or “bad things” happening, you may avoid it, deny it, or delay in resolving it. Altering your behavior to accommodate conflict can lead to even greater problems. EAPs are experts at helping people manage conflicts. Learn more from these professionals if mismanaging conflict is an ongoing issue for you.

Q.  Many of my employees have financial problems. Do employee financial problems put companies at risk in any way? I think it would be extremely unlikely that any of my employees would steal, for example. So why should a company be especially concerned?

 A.  It is estimated that 30 million employees face severe financial stress — about 25% of the workforce. This figure is up nearly 300% from 30 years ago. The ways this stress affects employers are not readily visible, but they are substantial. The average employee with financial problems loses 20 work hours per month dealing with financial issues. Financial stress is also linked to an increased risk of accidents. Accidents increase workers’ compensation costs, and other ripple effects exist. Personal health can be grossly affected by financial stress. Sleep disturbances, hypertension, and anxiety are just a few examples. Many financially stressed employees seek part-time work; others quit for better pay. These are obvious turnover costs. Added burdens on workforce management professionals include dealing with garnishments, bill collectors, spouses seeking child support payments, and more.

Q.  What is the most powerful way that I can help employees feel valued? 

A.  Not feeling appreciated is a key reason employees quit jobs. This makes employee recognition programs popular. What often gets overlooked, however, is how appreciation can be expressed directly by supervisors. Don’t rely solely upon your organization to do all the “thanking.” Engage in this practice and develop it as a skill. Learn how to make it effective. What works better, having appreciation come from you or from peers? Also learn how to personalize praise by making it detailed. This has more positive impact. Thanking employees isn’t just good for them; it also reinforces behaviors you want repeated. Never hesitate to ask your employees how they like to be thanked, and do not minimize your role in praising an employee for a solid effort. Overdoing it is harder than you think. Often employees complain, “I never get a thank-you from my boss.” Don’t let that be you.

Q.  How can I help employees be more effective in workplace communication, specifically choosing its proper form? Sending an email to a customer, for example, rather than making a phone call can ruin a sale. There are other kinds of communication gaffes that are even worse.

A.  Start with any guidance available in your organization, but seek agreement with your employees on proper communication protocols. These can vary depending on your work culture, service, or industry. Brainstorm the most important communication scenarios. Discuss the implications of proper and improper communication choices. Research what other companies are doing to solve their communication issues. Some companies establish elaborate policies to gain better control over this problem. You can find examples by searching for the phrase “routine workplace communication techniques and protocols.” The increasing options and tools for communication have compounded the problem. The adage “information is not communication” describes the difficulty faced by employers. A telephone call, email, post, tweet, text, or face-to-face meeting can all say the same thing, but the wrong choice of any of them can lead to disaster. Add generational bias or differences in status, position, or culture and you can see how this problem can affect the bottom line.

Q.  Helping employees feel satisfied with their jobs so turnover is low and helping them remain happy so they perform well are every employer’s goals. Is there research that points to how that is most predictably accomplished?

A.  Helping your employees feel “empowered” boosts morale and increases the desire to be productive. That’s the conclusion of a study by Scott Seibert, professor of management and organization at the University of Iowa’s Tipple College of Business, which examined more than 140 other management research studies related to the effect of empowerment.¹ In every industry, occupation, or geographic region, empowering employees produces higher morale and motivation for higher productivity. It holds true regardless of gender, job, or culture. Empowerment is a closely studied dynamic with significant psychological effects on workers and a clear impact on the bottom line. Recognizing or improving your employees’ work status, giving them authority to acquire resources and effect change, authorizing them to make decisions, giving them delegation authority, etc. — these controls relieve stress and free up creativity. Find these opportunities in your employees’ positions and you’ll discover the magic effect of empowerment on your bottom line.

Source: http://tiny.cc/empower-workers

URLs case sensitive. Information contained in the FrontLine Supervisor is for general information purposes only and is not intended to be specific guidance for any particular supervisor or human resource management concern. For specific guidance on handling individual employee problems, consult with your EA Professional. © 2011 DFA Publishing & Consulting, LLC



Q.  I don’t deny that stress is a significant issue for most workers, but I have never seen a report from our company or any company that links stress to direct costs for anything. So is stress overblown as a problem for business and industry? Where are the costs of stress?

A.  Although it is not possible to say “employee stress caused the loss of X dollars to our company,” medical and social science research abounds with evidence that stress directly contributes to financial loss for employers. These costs tend to occur in four key areas: absenteeism, lost productivity, medical expenses, and turnover. Financial managers typically follow these financial costs closely, especially in larger companies. For example, stressed employees are more likely to stay home and take “mental health days” as a way to cope. Stress can cause health problems, of course, but it can also make existing health problems worse, especially preexisting autoimmune disorders. Did you know that stressed employees feel more powerless and are more likely to complain, file grievances, file lawsuits, have more accidents, make more errors, and experience more conflicts? The list goes on. When you see evidence of employees under stress, think “How can the EAP help?”

Q.  How can I get more support from my boss?

A. Does getting support from your boss mean improving communication, having your boss take time to listen to your concerns and then assist you in solving problems or back you up on key decisions? Lack of support is a common complaint among supervisors, but the starting point is to understand your responsibility in the quality of the relationship that you have with your supervisor. Examine your communication style and habits. Do you regularly exchange information? Do you solicit your boss’s perspective on issues you must resolve? Do you ask for the benefit of his or her experience as you manage tougher problems? Finally, do you directly ask for support? Many supervisors are reluctant to participate in an active relationship with their manager because it demands vulnerability, trust, authenticity, and other engagement skills. They want support, but they have not laid a foundation for easily obtaining it. Talk with the EAP. The EA professional will help you discover the steps you have not yet taken to a better relationship.

Q. I had to initiate a disciplinary action, and my employee now gives me the cold shoulder. How do I address this passive anger that has suddenly appeared? Prior to the job action, an EAP referral was refused. I do not want to lose this employee.

A. It is not unusual for an employee who has been disciplined to feel anger for receiving a disciplinary action, especially if he or she believes it was unwarranted or excessive. That may well be a majority of disciplined employees. How your employee responds to a disciplinary action is a performance issue, not simply a personal matter. You want effective communication and acceptable levels of productivity from your employee, but you won’t attain these without complementary behaviors that make them possible. Meet with your employee and discuss his or her response to the disciplinary action. Define the response as a separate issue of concern. The objective is helping your employee deal constructively with the disciplinary action. Recommend the EAP again as a way to help him or her cope. Later, demonstrate your expectations for a positive and productive relationship going forward.

Q.  Is immaturity a performance issue that the EAP can address? My employee exhibits adolescent-like behaviors such as interrupting, inappropriate laughing, joking, and creating minor annoyances that disrupt the quiet of the workplace. I don’t see how that’s “treatable.”

A.  Document the behavior and the time and place of these occurrences, and meet with your employee to insist that they end. Go through your list. Don’t label the employee and be careful about deciding these behaviors simply point to “immaturity”. The commonalities of these behaviors appear to be impulsivity and lack of self-control. Inability to exercise self-control points to other issues. Regardless, the EAP can help. It is sometimes easy to label a set of behaviors or a pattern of behaviors in order to understand them better from your framework. This helps you decide what to do next in the way of a management or administrative decision. But labeling the employee as immature can unwittingly lead you to dismiss the usefulness of an EAP solution outright. That would be the wrong decision.

Q.  My employee was injured on the job with use of the wrong tool. The truth is that it crossed my mind to stop him, but I dismissed the thought because I was so busy. Rather than blame myself, how do I reduce my stressful workload so I avoid a second occurrence?

A.  When we are busy and under stress, it is easy to ignore warning signs or dismiss decisions we should make that would preempt problems. The problem for you to tackle is not necessarily the stressful workload. Your goal should be to increase self-awareness. This will empower you to stop, think, and act when needed and to avoid using denial as a coping “tool” to reduce stress and remain uninvolved in critical decisions. When you are more self-aware, you can make intuitive decisions more easily in the middle of fast-moving, complex situations, where little structure exists and things appear ambiguous. You are able to pay closer attention to “gut feelings” that are less likely to be overshadowed by all the activity and hustle-bustle around you. There are many exercises for increasing self-awareness. You can search for them or talk to your EAP to learn more.