Pairing Employees for Success

Do you have one, two, maybe three employees that given the authorization may not be working with your company in the future due the amount of problems they seem to have? Everyone does, I don’t know any companies that don’t have this problem.  In this day and age it is a very big problem to get rid of an employee without significant documentation. Many times due to labour laws you might even be stuck with them, so what do you do? One thing that many supervisors forget is that the employee may not listen to you outside of a direct order, but they may listen to someone else on your team. So if things aren’t going your way anyway why not try some out of the box thinking. Pair the employee up with another team member that you they get along with and see if they can change some habits. Sometimes if a person is shown a different way of thinking about situations, gets a chance to talk with someone who is not in an authoritative position it can help to break down walls. Some employees will do this naturally and other times you need to push them into the situation a bit to see if it works.

If you have an employee that is always having trouble in a certain area and you have tried multiple times to get them to change then try this; Find an employee you can trust and see if they are willing to show this other employee the way to do the task the right way. Maybe have them job shadow for a week with them or check on them once in a while. You don’t even have to make a big deal of it, try keeping it casual and see if a bond is made naturally. There are many benefits to doing this. You get a second set of eyes to evaluate what the problem is, whether it is an attitude problem or an application issue.  You’ve given the employee another way of
completing the task, in essence extra training, and you’ve proven that you’re willing to work with this person to help them be successful. If the pairing doesn’t work you are no worse off than you were before you started, and at least you have had a second set of eyes to evaluate the problem. Remember some people learn by doing, some by watching, and others by listening, so be open to
out of the box methods to help your team. By doing that you will create a better team environment, and hopefully eliminate some bad behaviours.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant. He has over 30 years of experience in the transportation industry. More information can be found on his website at www.outridge.ca