Dealing with difficult employees is never easy. Yet, although it may be frustrating to manage these employees, you have to do so effectively if you hope to limit your legal liability. This is because disgruntled employees often levy claims against their employers for everything from discrimination and harassment to wrongful termination. Any one of these claims can leave you subjected to a massive judgment that can rock your financial stability and your reputation, which is why you need to take steps on the front end to protect your interests from difficult employees.
Ways to deal with difficult employees
There are actually a lot of things you can do to protect yourself from disgruntled workers. Here a just some of the steps that you should consider taking:
- Reduce work expectations to writing so that you have something to refer to
- Be consistent in disciplining your employees
- When you discipline an employee, make sure that you’re clear on what they did wrong and layout a timeline of how they can correct the problematic behavior
- Make sure that any consequences for failing to correct the behavior are clear
- Document everything from problematic behavior to your worker’s response to feedback
- Engage in progressive discipline so that a worker is on notice that their behavior is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated prior to being terminated from their position
- Make sure that you’re critiquing the behavior at issue rather than the individual
- Listen to what your employee has to say and try to work together with him or her to develop solutions
Keep in mind that these are just a few of the steps that you can take to protect yourself from legal liability. If you’d like to learn more about proactive steps that your human resources department can engage in to further your goal of protecting your business, then you might find it beneficial to read up on this topic and speak with a legal professional who is well-versed in employment law.