5 steps to turn around difficult employee conversations

It’s not much fun being criticised, especially at work. A manager asks an employee into their office and delivers news of a complaint against them or negative feedback about their performance.

These difficult employee conversations can often be taken the wrong way or as an attack on a personal level. It’s important to manage dialogue properly and inspire the employee to accept and change their behaviour. If these discussions are handled badly, employees may be left feeling demotivated, hurt and disengaged.

There are steps that can be taken to ensure that discussions like these are productive but positive, maintaining feelings of stability and progress for the employee involved.

1. Know the facts

Employees can clash from time to time and HR departments or employers will inevitably receive complaints about employee behaviour. When an employee lodges a complaint about a colleague, there is always a real danger that managers simply don’t know the whole story. Arrange individual meetings with all employees involved and get to the root of what really happened.

This is also key to poor performance. It’s likely that there is background to the problem, rather than an employee simply becoming unproductive. Have a discussion and create an environment where the employee feels that they can divulge why they may be less productive than usual.

2. Remain neutral

It’s easy to look at the evidence, an angry email or an abusive comment, and make assumptions. This is where it can all go wrong. Managers need to make sure that they stay unbiased and non-judgmental until all sides of the story are heard. It’s important to maintain neutrality throughout the process and beyond.

If an employee is struggling with performance and there are suspicions that it may be drug or alcohol related, don’t judge them. Open up a dialogue and offer the security of a confidential conversation.

3. Establish trust

Charging in with questions about the issue or asking why an employee is behaving a certain way is sure to be taken as a personal attack. This will only result in the employee putting up barriers, and managers will not be able to properly resolve the issue.

When delivering negative feedback, ensure that difficult employee conversations are not led with the problem. Find out how the employee is feeling about work in general, whether they are feeling motivated by a certain project or task. This helps to ease any anxiety that they may be harbouring and achieve a trusting atmosphere where discussion can flow openly.

4. Encourage growth

Employees that are part of difficult employee conversations are likely to become withdrawn following a meeting which appears to criticise their work or character. During meetings that involve negative feedback, try to be insightful and discover what motivates and demotivates the employee in question.

To help all parties to discover why certain behaviour has occurred in the first place, draw up simple steps that explore how this issue has arisen, and how it can be avoided in the future.

5. From difficult employee conversations to positive conversations

By outlining a plan of action in the form of steps to follow, managers can help employees to develop their outlook and behaviour. However, it’s important to schedule a follow up meeting for a few weeks’ time, so that all parties can regroup and discuss what progress has been made.

If the issue does not seem to have been resolved, try to understand why, rather than becoming frustrated at employees for not trying hard enough. It may be that the employee didn’t feel comfortable enough in the first instance and wasn’t completely honest about their feelings. If this is the case, the follow up meeting will provide an opportunity to establish what is and isn’t working from the first discussion.

We’ve heard employers say that employees are their greatest asset. Following these steps should ensure that employees feel that they can go to their managers for resolutions. More importantly, they should be able to leave the situation behind and move on, feeling supported by their employer and positive about the working future that employer and employee have worked together to create.

For more information on this topic or any other HR issue that you are experiencing, call Cathy on 01454 808 658 for advice and support. You can also drop us an email at hello@wearepes.co.uk.