Turnover is the number one cost to most companies.  However, there is a good kind of turnover.  How much does it cost to keep an employee that is an emotional drain on the system?

By emotional drain I mean the employee who is never happy, frequently complains, starts rumors, triangulates, talks behind your back – you get the idea.  We’ve all known one,  hopefully that one is not you!

Companies will retain these employees because on the surface, it appears they are doing their job.  Simply completing the tasks of one’s job is not adequate in today’s competitive market place.

There are actually two components of every job – the “content” part and the “process” part.  The content part consists of the tasks such as completing paperwork, running the press machine, giving the injection or whatever type of content/tasks one is hired to do.  The process part is the relationship piece.  This is the ability to get along with peers and supervisors.  To be appropriately assertive, optimistic, confront relational discord head-on and simply getting along with others.  We sometimes refer to this as playing nice in the sandbox.

To be effective, employees must “do” both content and process.  Unfortunately, often times companies overlook the process problem because of content/skill expertise.  Think back on a situation where you worked with an employee or supervisor that was a “content expert,” and a “process problem,” how did it feel?  I have a hunch you were not a happy employee.

Everyone knows that happy employees are good and productive employees.  So when an employee is a process problem, I recommend you “show them the door.”  Just as you would if an employee did not possess the skill to do the content part of their job.

In summary: employees who cannot or choose not to play nice in the sandbox cost the organization money because they create an unhappy, unsettled and discontent environment.  Unfortunately, fellow employees are not immune from their negative influence.  Good employees leave when they find themselves in a work environment like this.  I would venture a guess that a lot of good employees leave good jobs because a process problem co-worker was not held accountable for their behaviors.

We all want to work in a positive environment.  Translation:  Positive environments can only occur when we work with content experts that are also positive-process employees.

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Jeff

This entry was posted in Blog, White Papers and tagged Communication Skills, Conflict Resolution, Effective Relationships, Employee Complaints, Employee Engagement, Employee Motivation, Leadership, Trust In the Workplace. Bookmark the permalink.