Every business has had difficult employees. Whether it is someone who is not in the right position, or someone who simply has not developed the skills and working relationships to help the practice succeed, all practices experience the challenging employee. What do you do about these challenging employees?
First of all, every practice should have an employment law attorney as part of their external team to consult with when needed. Every state has different employment laws that must be followed, in addition to federal law. Some helpful information regarding federal labor laws can be found at the Department of Labor. In addition, a Human Resources Specialist is important for your practice to be knowledgeable about how to handle all employee issues.
Many times unhappy or ineffective employees are the result of a lack of clarity or communication between business leadership and the employee. In any case, it is important for practice management to be able to meet with difficult or ineffective employees to address the specific issues of inneffectiveness that are being experienced, to listen to feedback for why the ineffectiveness exists, and to establish a plan for how to resolve the issues and by when. Always create a written record of this discussion and the resultant plan. In most cases, it is a good idea to have the employee sign and date the documented plan. In this manner, you have documented the issues and your attempts to resolve them, in the event a decision to terminate the employee is ever necessary.
An excellent resource to help you learn how to have these difficult but necessary conversations is the book, Fierce Conversations, by Susan Scott.
And remember, if you see that an employee is ineffective, the rest of your team does as well. If you hesitate in taking appropriate action to resolve the issues in an effort to help your team be 100% effective, your team may begin to develop distrust for your leadership. The ineffective employee brings down the entire team. Help your team by not procrastinating in addressing challenging employees early to either resolve the issue and move forward or to find an employee who can satisfy your team's needs. Remember, always consult your employment law attorney for guidance in managing difficult employees.
