The Tribune

By IAN FERGUSON

This week I was reminded by a colleague that we spend as many as 45 of our weekly waking hours with the people we work with. This represents a sizeable percentage of the total number of hours we have during the course of a week, even sometimes surpassing the time we spend with our own families and dear ones.

This sobering thought perhaps brings our topic from last week into greater perspective, as we must all address the dissension and ill-feeling that exists between team members. Much of the inefficiencies and lack of productivity comes as a result of the tense work environment that exists between managers, leaders and employees, and between employees themselves. Whatever the cause of these issues, what is certain is that employee conflict is bad for business, adversely impacting the bottom line.

This article provides employers and employees alike with tips for diffusing employee tension:

1. Provide frequent team-focused training for the staff

The training programmes should remind team members of the common goal that each person is responsible for achieving, both individually and collectively.

This has to go beyond the morning pep talk, and must reinforce the benefits of group cohesion and the joys of harmony in a work family.

1. Enact policy to regulate employee conflicts

Standards must be established and communicated if there is to be employee congruence. Along with this, a clear role delineation must be established, and each team member must know and understand their individual responsibilities and that of others on their team. When these lines are blurry, employee friction begins to rise.

1. Have open-ended coaching for employees with conflicts

It is not always necessary to terminate employees having challenges agreeing. Instead, leaders, managers and supervisors must acquire coaching skills to assist employees in getting to the root of their issues.

We already know people bring much emotional baggage to work. Helping people work through some of this proves fruitful for the wise company.

1. Feel free to terminate employees who refuse to comply

When employees have a documented history of refusing to work well with others, it is necessary to release those employees from your company. Failure to do so will result in the establishment of a precedence that employee conflict is allowed and welcomed.

1. Adjust hiring policies to source and recruit emotionally-stable team members

Open and subjective ‘feel good’ interviews, where employers are trying to get a sense of who they are hiring, usually end up in disaster, and many emotionally imbalanced persons slip through the cracks.

Companies who do not use psychometric behavioural analysis to determine employee ‘fit’ for their organisations, and leave the selection process to the untrained eye, run the risk of hiring ‘ticking bombs’ who are well rehearsed and seemingly polished.

• NB: Ian R. Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having completed graduate studies with regional and international universities. He has served organsations, both locally and globally, providing relevant solutions to their business growth and development issues. He may be contacted at tcconsultants@coralwave.com.