It’s a dream for an employer to have qualified, experienced, skilled and fully accountable employees with optimum honesty to drive results.
The irony though is that there is no meter to gauge the level of honesty. Honesty at senior level is paramount given that each decision made literally can make or break a business. An organisation has to be fortunate to have every leader being honest and true to what he does – and it makes a huge difference.
Employees of your organisation should be with the organisation wholeheartedly supporting the growth of the business. Unfortunately, employees’ honesty and loyalty come under scrutiny every now and then in most organisations with incidents taking place raising concerns. Compared to the previous generations, the younger generation lacks loyalty – hence the honesty is a question? If one is not loyal how can one be honest?
When people on a team work well together, exemplifying positivity, collaborating well and be willing to listen and grow, it’s like hitting a productivity jackpot. Every organisation wishes to have very loyal employees giving out their very best to the organisation. In making sure they have all loyal employees, some forward-thinking companies have even gone so far as to revamp their entire interview practices to put more emphasis on teams, recruiting groups over individual hires, precisely because people who work well on teams are, in general, the type high-performing employees that companies want to keep.
But there’s another type of team member — one who can derail employee productivity and happiness along with company profitability: the toxic employee. While no HR manager ever sets out to hire one, toxic employees drain otherwise positive workplaces.
Cost of disloyalty
Hiring a toxic employee has a significant impact on everything from day-to-day workplace dynamics to the long-term bottom line. How can you spot a toxic employee? Chances are that if you work with one, you know.
In general, toxic employees are aggressive or defensive with coworkers, resistant to change or growth, and unwilling to take responsibility for mistakes. They might be overt bullies, or they might gossip quietly about you behind your back. Regardless of how their behavior manifests, the result is the same: a workplace culture that’s charged with negativity and inefficiency.
Inefficient and unproductive workers actually cost your company more than it can afford to lose. One of the most damaging ways bad employees harm businesses is by destroying a company’s reputation. A business’s reputation for quality products, services, and professionalism is something that takes years to establish, but one bad employee can derail all of this hard work.
Unprofessional service or products lacking the level of excellence expected of your business leaves distributors, clients and customers dissatisfied. Damaging your reputation this way is often irreversible and takes years of work to bounce back from, if you are ever able to do so.
Bad employees not only hurt your bottom line, but they also lead to lowered employee morale from your top employees. The rest of the team has to pick up slack from unproductive or ineffective workers, which can cause your valued employees to become dissatisfied, disengaged, or worse.
Bad employees may even cost you these great workers if their workloads become unmanageable while you attempt to address the problems with the bad egg. Instead, you must make the tough choice and remove bad employees so you can focus your efforts on finding a team member willing to share the load and work hard to achieve the vision you have created for your business.
Bad employees
Employees that refuse to think for themselves or problem-solve independently cause workflow interruptions for management. Rather than focusing on the core issues in their department or team, your managers are forced to hand-hold the problematic employee through tasks and be peppered with questions constantly.
This leads to less productive management-level employees, whom you rely on to move your initiatives forward. However, they are now unable to drive or implement these initiatives due to the constant supervision required for bad employees.
Although firing an employee that isn’t performing is an uncomfortable conversation, you have to ask yourself how much more you are willing to lose due to this individual. When you start thinking solely about what is best for the business, the decision becomes obvious.
Managing a toxic employee is difficult enough. Weeding them out during the hiring process can be an even more difficult challenge. Some people are good on paper and perform well in interviews. Their toxic qualities only come out once they are engaging with coworkers, handling challenges, or working under pressure, which is why honing your hiring process to spot troublesome signs early is key.
Most people, especially seasoned candidates, come to interviews having prepared stock answers. When you ask a question, don’t settle for a rehearsed or overtly trite response. Ask for multiple examples of how they handled different personalities and dynamics in the workplace.
By asking them to dig deep, you’re likely to get answers that are more honest, more spontaneous, and more indicative of their potential for toxicity. No workplace is perfect, and many of these questions require candidates to speak to the negatives. Ideal candidates, however, will present problems without pointing fingers at people, shaming others, or playing the victim.
Candidates who complain or gripe about their supervisors, co-workers, or direct reports are likely to exhibit similar toxic qualities in other contexts. Sometimes, it comes down to a gut feeling.
As much as you focus on growing the bottom-line, have adequate focus on this aspect to ensure that employee disloyalty is not a deterrent to your business.