It’s no secret that being a compassionate leader can provide tremendous rewards to your business. But sometimes, businesses face challenges from within that are difficult to deal with. At Technalink, we’ve found that one of the biggest challenges a compassionate leader can face is that of a toxic employee.
Toxic employees create significant challenges – they can create many negative effects within your business including things like:
• Lower morale
• Increased turnover
• Compliance issues
• Reduce productivity
• And more
Essentially, a toxic employee can ruin a workplace and make it hard for your team to want to arrive at work. But it’s often not as simple as just firing them – you usually have to take steps to deal with the toxicity before you can fire them justly. Here are some of the main steps to consider taking. Each of them could help you deal with a toxic employee more effectively.
• Have A Policy – Every business should have a clear policy in place in regards to things like harassment, negative behavior, and more. It should also detail your rights to terminate employment and disciplinary actions you may take. Each employee should sign a form regarding their acceptance of this policy.
• Talk To The Employee – If you’re a compassionate leader, you already know that talking can often get to the root cause of many issues. Try to talk to the employee about their missteps and see if there is an underlying issue that should be dealt with.
• Don’t Wait – If you wait too long, you’ll end up hurting yourself and your business. You have to deal with an issue quickly, so it doesn’t explode into something much larger.
• Follow Protocol – It can be easy to want to skip steps in your progressive disciplinary plan, but you should avoid doing so. Follow your protocol so that any steps you take aren’t’ seen as grounds for a lawsuit by the employee.
The bottom line is that if you have a toxic employee, you owe it to yourself to deal with the situation quickly and effectively. Being a compassionate leader is important, but that compassion can only go so far. Keep the steps above in mind and you’ll be able to deal with toxicity in the workplace and keep your employees happier and your business operating profitably.
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