Maximize Business Performance Through Employee Experience
“Why can’t they just do their Job?”
Work has changed significantly over the last 100 years; however, one thing has remained consistent - Many organisations struggle to get the most out of their people. Despite over five decades of focus from business leaders and HRM professionals, only 30% of organisations report having a highly engaged workforce. People leaders commonly report spending most of their time ‘firefighting’, solving problems with below average employee productivity, disagreements, and failure to follow policies/procedures.
As part of the Commerce Ballarat B31 Business Festival, Ascent People Insights teamed up with a leading local recruitment agency, JK Personnel, to help local businesses overcome these challenges and get the most out of their people. Here are our three key takeaways from the event.
Counterproductive Work Behavior is Common
Most organisations experience some level of Counterproductive Work Behavior. A simple way to think about Counterproductive Work Behavior is any behavior, demonstrated by a team member, that undermines the interests and/or performance of the organisation. These behaviors typically fall into one of the following categories:
The five catagories of Counterproductive Work Behaviour
Abuse: Physical or psychological aggression towards others such as threats or disparaging comments
Production Deviance: Deliberately not following company policies, procedures, or standard
Sabotage: Purposefully destroying, damaging, or wasting company property and resources
Theft: Stealing the organisations property or resources
Withdrawal: Deliberately limiting time at work through unplanned leave, longer than allowed breaks, and arriving late or leaving early
Address the fire, not the smoke
An overwhelming majority of Counterproductive Work Behaviors are a stress response by employees. While addressing the behavior directly with the employee is important, organizations shouldn’t stop there. Identifying which aspect(s) of the organisation’s employee experience caused the significant stress response, and working to solve/reduce the cause, will have much more significant positive long-term effects than just addressing individual employee behavior.
Invest in your Leadership Team
Leadership is one of the most significant and high impact aspects of an organisations employee experience. Organisations who invest in developing great people leaders reduce the frequency of Counterproductive Work Behavior, and enjoy other benefits such as greater strategic flexibility, increased sales of goods and services, and lower levels of employee turnover.
