What can cause a challenge in the workplace?

Behavior and work performance issues may be the result of personal or professional circumstances, including but not limited to:

• Professional relationships
• Jealousy of the success of others
• Issues within the home or family
• Physical or mental health concerns
• Stress resulting from a heavy workload
• Poor work-life balance

Minimizing internal factors helps reduce the number of employee-created challenges within an organization. Providing leaders with the training, tools and resources they need to implement effective management strategies helps them offer employees who are impacted by external factors the support and encouragement they need to make adjustments and succeed.

How you might manage workplace challenges

Effective management strategies help leaders encourage and support all employees in overcoming challenges and contributing to the success of the organization.  Using the following steps might help you to manage employees experiencing difficulties in an effective manner:

1. Acknowledge and identify the problem

When dealing with workplace challenges,  it is useful to begin by acknowledging a problem exists and identifying what the problem is. Try to be as specific as possible when identifying the issues that are being created in the workplace. If there are several concerns about employee behavior or work performance,  try to identify each one. Document specific examples of each problem.

2. Find the positives

It can be just as important to identify the positive characteristics and actions of challenges as it is to identify the issues. Identifying several positive traits or accomplishments to discuss along with your concerns helps you minimize the risk of meetings becoming confrontational and unproductive. Employees typically respond best to critical feedback when they feel their value is also being acknowledged.

Related: How to Motivate Your Employees

3. Ask for feedback from employees

It is also important to get your employee’s feedback about performance, behavior and concerns.  You might schedule a private meeting with the employee and inform them of the reason for the meeting.  It is beneficial to give employees time to prepare for the meeting. Your primary goal for the meeting is to discover the root causes that are creating issues with the employee’s performance or behavior. Inform the employee that the goal of the discussion is to find solutions you can work on together can help you proactively defuse confrontational situations.

4. Create an action plan and document it

It can be helpful to work with the employee to create an action plan to address concerns together. This can include setting out expectations, identifying specific actions and agreeing on the process for measuring progress. You might also like to let the employee know you are available to offer support where you can. 

5. Follow up consistently

 It can be helpful to establish a schedule for check-ins with the employee to discuss their progress and provide additional feedback, ensuring the employee has sufficient time to implement actions agreed upon. 

Related: How to Reduce Employee Turnover