April Feature-

Managing and Developing Employees

By:  Keith T. Chiles, MBA

Introduction

    People are the most under-appreciated assets for most businesses.  While the owners and managers might spend thousands of dollars maintaining and upgrading a machine or investing in tools, most do not consider the maintenance and upgrading of the very people who operate those same machines.

 Management Styles

   Two management science researchers developed a test several years ago that was intended to measure the style of managers.  It was called the Managerial Grid and measured the manager’s tendency to either be task or people oriented.  Those managers who were task oriented were labeled Task Masters and those who were concerned for the welfare of employees were labeled as Country Club Managers.

   Task Masters drove their people to achieve unrealistic deadlines with a focus on company objectives and profits regardless of the effect it might have on the lives of employees.  Unfortunately, the benefits of such a management style are rather short lived as employee turnover often consumed long-term profits.

   Country Club Managers focus on the welfare of the employees and will try to make the workplace a lot of fun.  They tend to not be confrontational and have less focus on meeting goals and objectives of the company.  Unfortunately, these managers may have profitability problems that make the organization less secure.

   Using the Managerial Grid is an excellent idea and good managers were those who maintain a balance of the two styles.   The problem with the Managerial Grid is that it measures how managers believe they manage, and not actual managerial behaviors.  Since most managers tend to see themselves as being well balanced, the observations of trained specialists are usually inconsistent with the manager’s perception of their style.

   Although the Managerial Grid is ineffective in allowing managers to evaluate their own style, it’s an excellent tool for understanding the styles of managers.  It is also an excellent tool for labeling particular styles and determining if a manager is suited for a specific organizational culture.

   The purpose of this paper is to help the manager or business owner recognize that there are different styles, and to provide suggestions to keep the manager somewhere between the two styles in managing employees.  It also helps to understand why experienced employees, who have been trained under a different management style, may have to be reoriented in order to work effectively with a manager of a different style.

The Four Employees

   I advise my clients to categorize employee as being Immature, Mature, Worthless, or Valued.  Each category has a different management or investment opportunity.  Each category also has varying amounts of effort required to manage or develop these employees.  Maturity is a measure of the employee’s experience in the workplace.

   Most small companies rely on hiring young and moldable talent who will work for low wages and are beginning their careers.  What most people don’t realize is that the hourly rate is only part of the compensation package of the young or inexperienced worker.  The inexperienced worker may come with a lower hourly rate, but businesspeople must understand the obligation to invest additional effort in training and mentorship.

   Most early employers (those who employ someone early in the employees working career) fail to consider the impact they have on the future of an employee.  Most small businesses make a hiring decision based on a quick interview or a referral from an existing employee.  Another slightly more experienced employee teaches the new employee the ropes and trains the inexperienced employee.  What is wrong with this picture?  A lot!

   The inexperienced employee will probably be trained with a focus on completing the daily tasks.  Many of these situations are similar to my own experience as a new employee working for a company that cooked and delivered a variety of prepared foods to customer’s homes.  I was handed off to a restaurant manager who was about a year or two older than myself and I was taught how to bread chicken, to fry chicken, make a variety of foods, to prepare the food to go, and to clean tables or mop floors.  My co-workers also taught me how to goof off and not get caught, to do minimal work, and to behave poorly as an employee.

   What was missing from my own experience, and that of most first-time employees, is the training on what the business expects from the inexperienced employee.  It also fails to take into consideration what the new employee expects and deserves from the management of the business.  Why does an inexperienced employee deserve anything from the management besides a pay check?  Because training and mentorship makes up the difference between the hourly wages of a new employee verses an experienced one.

The Inexperienced Employee

   Most first-time employees are very moldable, but owners and managers tend to let the wrong people do the molding.  I advise small business owners to spend an hour or so on the first day of employment to counsel the inexperienced employee on what is expected.  This usually involves explaining the importance of getting to work on time, being honest, pointing out that mistakes will be made and should be reported, and letting the new employee know their effort is what makes the business successful and helps maintain their job.  The first session should also define the behaviors that result in immediate termination.  Be sure to ask the new employee if they understand these things and are willing to make a commitment to be guided by them.  Gently clarify any issues that are unclear.  I always ask the new employee if I have their word on the commitment.  These sounds a lot like good parenting, and it is.

   I recommend that business owners set aside some time each day for the first few weeks to have a counseling session with the new employee.  This is an opportunity to gently point out any minor concerns about the new employee’s performance and behavior on the job.  Most employees make mistakes or bring some bad habits to the new job and these counseling sessions are excellent opportunities to make early corrections.

   I recommend companies prepare a checklist of important functions to be learned and documents to be reviewed.  Have the new employee check off the tasks they have learned when they feel comfortable in doing these jobs on their own.  This checklist can be reviewed at weekly counseling sessions to review progress and verify that functions are being properly learned.

   Don’t make the mistake of forgetting to let the new employee know that they are doing things right.  Positive complements tend to reinforce the desired behaviors and gain respect.  We want to catch the employee doing something right and complement them for the good work.  I try to sandwich any corrective suggestions between a pair of compliments.  This gives me two positive reinforcements for every negative correction.  Don’t forget to tell the employee about little things like arriving to work on time, but no false compliments.

   Counseling sessions allow the business owner or manager an opportunity to learn about the business from the perspective of a new employee.  New employees often see things that don’t make sense to them and creates an opportunity to make business adjustments. 

   For those things that come up that have a legitimate reason for being done, it’s an opportunity to educate the new employee.  Keep the relationship casual, relaxed, and informative for both parties.  This is an opportunity to become professional friends with the new employee.  Employees tend to be more loyal to people they consider as friends.

   These early sessions should be non-threatening with the tone of a mentor and not a cop.  The objective is for the new employee to view their boss as a person they can safely go to when they have a question or issue.  We save the harsher style for the repeated problems.

   When the counseling sessions begin to become repetitive with the same compliments and issues, they can be changed to weekly sessions.  I usually tell the new employee that we are reducing the sessions because he/she has progressed well and encourage him/her to come to me at any time with any questions or concerns that might arise.

   As the new employee becomes more skilled and the level of supervision begins to diminish, start transitioning the session from coaching and training to goal setting and review sessions.  Have the employee make a written goal of something to accomplish before the next meeting.  This should not take more than about a minute.  Spend a minute or two reviewing the progress from the previous week’s goals.  Then spend a minute or two chatting about the quality of the work or discussing performance issues that are becoming apparent.  Be sure to sandwich the criticism between areas of praise.  Never raise your voice or display anger to the employee as that suggests a lack of control.  People who remain calm when addressing problems tend to get the most respect.

   The natural evolution of the weekly meetings is to make one of them a performance appraisal and document the performance in writing.  There should be no surprises in a performance evaluation on either side.  It should be the documentation of the progress of he employee, an assessment of the employee’s skills for doing the job, and the setting of goals or objectives for the next year.

   All counseling sessions should be documented either on paper or by using a word processor to edit an employee’s file.  If a paper form is used, it can be created to record the employee’s weekly goals and accomplishments as already outlined.  The back of the form can be used to record other issues discussed to retain an informal record of issues that have been discussed and addressed.  Keep the goal sheets in the employee’s file.

   This may seem like a lot of work to invest in an inexperienced employee, but training and mentorship is part of the cost of hiring people at low wage rates.   Many of these new employees will not last, but these methods will help nurture a more loyal employee.

The Experienced Employee

   The experienced employee is a different challenge.  The experienced employee may be more familiar with the politics of the employment, but often come at a higher hourly rate and may be bringing some baggage from issues with previous employers.

   With an experienced employee, I recommend weekly meetings to set goals for the coming week, review the past week, and to learn of any issues that might be surfacing in the workplace.  Use the same format as I recommend with inexperienced employees, but it should not necessary to instruct an experienced employee on elementary matters. 

   Experienced employees who have been in the workforce for a few years should have an understanding of the correct behaviors for the position they hold.  Occasionally it may be necessary to correct the employee’s behavior when they violate the cultural norms of their new organization.  I like to keep those corrective actions as casual as possible and avoid accusing the employee of being bad.  A statement like: “I realize this behavior might be common in other organizations, but this company has elected not to support it.” 

   How serious can a cultural norm difference be?  They can be quite serious.  I used to work for the government where our salaries were public information and published for everyone to see.  It was common at that facility to discuss salaries because they were not a secret.  I moved to a private company and didn’t realize they maintained secrecy about salaries and got into trouble for engaging in a salary discussion.  The point is that organizations have different cultural norms and just because an employee has been in the workforce for several years does not mean they know the culture of your company.  Treat violations of the company culture seriously, but let the misbehaving employee off with a simple admonition on a first offense.  Become more concerned if the behaviors continue.

   Experienced employees should be able to come up to speed quickly at handling tasks they are familiar with.  They are much more able to be handed off to a senior employee to show them how things are done in your organization.  Most problems arise from the new employee not being familiar with the new procedures.  I recommend that companies prepare a checklist of important functions and documents to be reviewed and have the new employee check off the tasks they have learned when they feel comfortable in handling these tasks on their own.  This checklist should be reviewed at weekly counseling sessions to review progress and verify that functions are being properly learned.

   All weekly counseling sessions should be documented either on paper or by using a word processor to edit the employee’s file.  If a paper form is used, it can be created to record the employee’s weekly goals and accomplishments as already outlined.  The back of the form can be used to record other issues discussed to retain an informal record of issues that have been discussed and addressed.

Learning Modes

   At this point it is helpful to understand the way that people learn.  There are basically four stages of learning: Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.  They sound a bit confusing so I will explain with an analogy of driving an automobile.

Stage 1, unconscious incompetence or not being aware of what they cannot do.  The employee in this stage is unable to perform a task because they are not aware of the need to do it or the difficulty of the task.  In driving a car, the unconscious incompetent may know that people drive a car, but it appears so easy to them they are unaware it is a complex process.

Stage 2, conscious incompetence or not able to do the task, but recognizing they need help.  The employee has tried to perform the task and gotten into trouble or produced poor results.  The person is now at least aware that they cannot complete the task without help and recognize the need for training.  The driver who thinks they can drive because it looks so easy moves into this stage when they try driving and find that working the clutch and negotiating around corners is not as easy as it looks. 

Stage 3, conscious competence, or being able to accomplish the task with sufficient coaching or concentration.  The employee in stage three has been shown how to perform the task and can do it with a little coaching, looking at notes, or while concentrating on the task at hand.  The person learning to drive a car may now be able to work the clutch if they focus on what they are doing.

Stage 4, unconscious competence, or the ability to accomplish tasks without thinking about it.  The employee in stage four is often able to do multiple tasks without having to focus on each thing being done.  The driver in this stage has become good enough at driving that little thought is needed to work the clutch, turn corners, and adjust radio stations while maintaining a conversation with the passengers.

   This illustrates that people learn through stages.  Understanding the stages allows us to better understand the abilities and limitations of our employees and ourselves. 

  The Worthless Employee

   This is where I point out a problem in most companies that will prevent most disciplinary actions from being effective.  Most companies have a policies and procedures manual that is pulled out when employees are not following those procedures or are violating the policies.  In attempting to discipline or terminate an employee, it is important that a policy and procedures manual be prepared and communicated to the employee.  Without such a manual, it is critical that the manager prepares written documentation that clearly shows the employee understands the behavior is not to be tolerated.

   Before starting the process of disciplining an employee, I recommend consulting a lawyer who specializes in human resources law.  Follow the advice of the lawyer, because they will be responsible for defending you in court should the employee sue.  Legal action is rare, but can be expensive compared to having a lawyer oversee the disciplinary process.

   Documentation is critical in taking any disciplinary action against an employee and your lawyer should guide you.  One thing to keep in mind is that disciplinary documentation should reveal to anyone who reviews it that you worked diligently with the employee to allow him or her to correct actions and to become a valued employee.

   There are times when we hire an employee and do everything right, but cannot find a way to get the employee to fit in the culture of the company.  Perhaps we have counseled and trained the immature employee or worked to get a mature employee to do things our company way, but we are receiving resistance from the more gentle and positive attempt to correct problem behavior.  It is time to move from a positive and counseling approach to a more disciplinary one.

   This is where the documentation of counseling sessions becomes important to establish that the employee has been given an opportunity to correct problem behaviors in a non-confrontational manner.  Before proceeding, it is important to establish through documentation, that efforts are being made to correct problems and the sole purpose of the corrective process is to help the employee be successful.

   With written documentation that verbal counseling has been done to address an issue, it is time to have a formal verbal counseling session.  This is the point where a separate meeting is held to only discuss the issue of concern.  The employee should have the problem fully explained along with recommendations for improvement.  The session with the problem and corrective recommendations should be documented in writing, should be labeled as a formal verbal warning, should be signed by the employee as proof the meeting took place, should indicate the consequences of failing to correct the behavior, and it should be placed in the employee’s file.

   If the verbal warning is not effective in correcting the problem, it is time to do a formal written warning and employment probation.  The formal written warning should include a description of the problem, a description of acceptable behavior, a reference to past counseling sessions, a reference to the verbal warning, and that failure to correct the behaviors within a specific period of time will result in termination.  I recommend putting the employee onto weekly meetings to discuss and document progress toward correcting the issue.

   One tactic I have successfully used is to require the employee return for the next weekly meeting with a written plan and schedule for correcting the behavior problem.  It is important to have the employee propose how they are going to correct their own behavior and to not attempt to prescribe a solution.  I add this requirement to the written warning and state it is a work assignment and that failure to complete the assignment on a specific date will result in immediate termination.  Be sure to give hourly paid employees an opportunity to do this assignment during normal working hours to avoid legal problems.

   Monitor employee performance on a weekly basis until the date in which improvement must be completed.  If improvement has not been successful, it is time to terminate the employee using normal methods.  I have found that the termination goes smoothly when the employee understands along the way that corrective measures have not been satisfactory.  The point of termination is usually mutually understood and goes smoothly.

Valued Employees

   The valued employee is the one who seems to fit into the company well and has values that are appreciated by the business owner or management.  This is the employee the company should invest in to solve one of the biggest problems for the small business.  This can range from becoming better trained to do their jobs or to take over management of the business.

   One of the biggest problems in business is to locate someone who can run the company during the absence of the owner or manager.  Good managers and business owners groom a valued employee to run the company in their absence even though it may not seem necessary.  I will illustrate the need for this with a story from my own career.

   I was the executive director of a California Internet Service Provider and had selected a valued employee to mentor and groom as my potential replacement.  This employee was given leadership responsibilities and I had trained him to operate my department in the event that I either left the company or became ill.  When I was bucked off a horse and broke four ribs, he was able to step in and run the department for a month based on the training I had given him.

   Companies often fail because they become centered on the owner or manager and there is nobody who can step in and maintain continuity.   This often falls onto the shoulders of an untrained employee or family member.  When a good employee is trained to manage the business, the probability of survival increases significantly  since there is someone who can relieve the owner of many management tasks and responsible in a way that allows a seamless transition of management when the appropriate time or event takes place.

   How do we start the process of grooming an employee for leadership?  I use a method I call “picking up the book.”  Many years ago I had to promote an employee to the position of Unix network administrator.  Several people voiced interest in the position so I made my selection by leaving a network administration book lying in a common area of the facility.  Many of my employees took a look at the book, but only one of them actually started reading that book.  That person became my new network administrator.

   Providing opportunities for the employee and then letting them take the initiative to start the improvement process starts the process of nurturing a valued employee.  Decide how much you want to invest in the employee, but start slowly at first to see if the employee has the initiative to advance him or herself.

   One low-risk method of entering the process of nurturing employees is to compensate the employee for approved books that contribute to the current or future jobs for the selected employees.  If that produces effective results, adding college fee reimbursement and on-the-job training in conjunction with formal training can be an effective program.

   Follow the steps outlined in this paper and the company should benefit from better management, which usually produces better employees.  I have found that the first step in improving the quality of employees is to improve the quality of leadership.
 

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