How well do all your staff get on with each other?

Do you have this cosy idea that all your staff work well together as a team, help each other out when the pressure is on and cover absent colleagues workload? Well forget it! Recent research from Ceridian has shown that millions of workers cannot stand their work colleagues. Whilst you might not necessarily want them all to be partying together at weekends, you probably would be happy with a way of working where the team gets on and help each other out when necessary.

What impact can this have on your business and your profitability? Quite a lot it seems. 21% of respondents to the survey were most irritated by colleagues shirking work and 11% named tantrums and arguments in open spaces as the most stressful behaviour from colleagues which affects their work. Worryingly, 58% would not raise their concerns with their manager or HR Department. So what can you do to improve things?

Workplace conflict. Deal with workplace conflict as soon as you know about it. If it is a long standing problem, then it is even more important to deal with it decisively. Conflict problems will not go away on their own. Ignoring them now will only lead to a bigger problem in the future.

Communication. It sounds simple but good communication is fiendishly challenging to achieve. It is one of the main concerns and criticisms from staff that they don’t know what is going on in the business. This leads to rumours, gossip and inconsistent messages around the company. Give staff the opportunity to participate and express their opinions. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Need I say more?

Fair and consistent treatment of staff. Do you favour some staff over others? Do you give one employee a written warning for lateness but not another? All your staff are aware of what you do and how you treat everyone. Consistent behaviour by you will reduce the potential for issues within your team. Treat your staff with integrity and respect and they will treat each other the same way.

Stress. You are probably very weary of hearing how bad stress in the workplace is. It is however, a real problem and one which needs to be dealt with for not only health and safety reasons, but overall staff well-being as well. Dealing with matters to relieve workplace stress can have benefits for everyone as there is a known link between stress and sickness absence levels. Do you provide stress awareness training for your managers and staff?

Workload. Make sure that everyone is taking their fair share of the workload. Staff become unhappy when others in the team are not sharing the workload and working equitably. Include staff in decision making about priorities, targets and managing the work that needs to be done. Make sure the team is adequately resourced so that they can get on with their their job properly. Resources may be money, people, time, etc.

If all else fails, get some alternative suggestions by reading 500 Reasons Why … I Hate The Office by Malcolm Burgess. A riotous view of office life.

News & Comment

A company’s ‘green’ credentials are important to staff. A recent survey carried out by Badenock & Clark report that 1 in 10 office workers would take a cut in salary to work in a company with good ‘green’ credentials whilst 14% would turn down a job offer with a company that did not. Are ‘green’ matters part of your corporate social responsibility agenda?

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Inrtseientg eh?

2.8 million people in the UK are dependent drinkers. Worryingly 1.2 million of those are in employment.

Quote for November…

"When things haven't gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.
Lyndon Johnson

Sapience HR offers effective outsourced Human Resources and Personnel services and Consultancy so that companies have the right people and systems in place to achieve their business objectives.

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