Lack of communication is reducing productivity and performance

A situation in which something increases in size at a faster and faster rate.

The snowball effect is what we refer to when issues have not been dealt with or not dealt with properly but then for whatever reason action needs to be taken.  This creates increased risks in such action in consequence of not dealing with the issues.  So, lets have a look and I will give you an example of how the snowball is created.

Let’s say there is a performance issue of employee A.  Employee A reports to Employee B.  Employee B isn’t performing either and uses the alleged non performance of employee A as an excuse.  Employee B’s poor performance is not deal with either!  Employee B attempts to find everything wrong that Employee A does and manages it poorly by making Employee A miserable at work and therefore reducing productivity and performance and dodging a Bullying or WorkCover claim.  Then the employer wants to make Employee B redundant after they had made some internal changes to bring someone else into the business to take on some of the duties that Employee B had been neglecting or doing unsatisfactorily (so you can imagine how difficult this would make it to justify Employee B’s redundancy and the increased risk of an unfair dismissal claim that this would create).  I haven’t mentioned in this example the disrespect and impact of other employees seeing this play out in front of them.  You can see from this that failing to deal with Employee A’s and Employee B’s poor performance lead to even greater problems and risks for the business.

Or consider an individual that has worked for a business for many years and again there are performance issues but no one mentions anything.  Then the employer wants to downsize due to economic conditions, there are three people working in the same role but they select the one that has performance issues.  Whilst it is fine to base the selection on poor performance (all other things being equal) if the individual has not been advised of such poor performance and a proper process used to address that, it is difficult to then use it as the basis for selection.  So, it makes it harder for the employer to justify and easier for the employee to claim for a discrimination claim for a particular attribute.

Now do you see the snowball effect?  It really isn’t worth it.  Failing to address issues as and when they arise in a proper manner is costing you and has the potential to cost you more as the snowball grows.

There are many examples that we come across almost daily.  It’s really not worth it.

Don’t let the snowball bowl you over TALK – IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE and deal with employee issues at hand while they are at hand. Not only is the issue costing you in terms of reduced productivity and performance, it will make it harder to take justified action afterwards.

At HR Business Direction we can provide the advice and support for you to deal with your employee issues. Contact us here.

Related blogs: Talk it’s not rocket science

Leisa Messer BBus(HRM); GradDipIR; CAHRI; IRSQ
Human Resources Strategist
leisa.messer@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2251
www.hrbd.com.au