Ways of Dealing with Unprofessional Employees

There is sometimes that one or more unprofessional and challenging employee in the business. As much as they might be valuable, their behavior in the workplace towards fellow employees or customers could prove damaging to the company. Dealing with such people could be an uphill task for managers and supervisors, but then letting them almost always results in a more significant trouble later on. San Jose BMW, for instance, has been receiving complains about the misconduct of its employees. Unsatisfied customers left the dealership with less than the amiable state of mind and who certainly won’t be looking back fondly at the experience. So, how do you deal with difficult and unprofessional employees? Below are a few ways to go about it:

Provide clear guidelines on conduct

A good manager will hate to be strict with his/her employees and give strong feedback and instructions on the behavior of an employee might not be easy. But a great manager will understand the wisdom behind ensuring clear guidelines in conduct, thus safeguarding both employees and customers from such avoidable incidents like those reported at San Jose BMW.

Document the incidents

As a manager, it’s prudent to keep an employee’s track record on everything including their behavior and workplace conduct. This documentation gives you, the manager, a clear picture of the employee’s performance and whether he/she is capable of improvement. 

Show consistency

Employees are sometimes like babies; they tend to understand your actions better than your words. They watch to see just how you react to a particular situation. If a certain behavior is not ideal according to you as the manager, it becomes imperative that you respond to such behaviour the same way all the time. Do not show inconsistency in your reaction; this might pass as laxity on your part as management.

Set repercussions for the unresponsive employee

As a manager, you should be able to let your employee know that their conduct was not ideal to the expected company code and that you believe they had a capacity for change. But that if the difference was not going to be seen during a specified period, then specific consequences are to be expected. The latter should give the erring employee the opportunity to guide them into the required code of conduct slowly

Make tough decisions

For the good of the company or business, sometimes a manager may have to make tough choices like suspending an employee, cutting down incentives and employee benefits or outright dismissing them. As most managers are aware, it’s not easy to drop someone; many factors come into play that may affect the decision or even postpone it. But delaying a problem does not solve it, it only drags on the situation. When a wheel punctures, we replace it with a better one, we don’t hope the wheel will get better as we go. We look at the bigger picture which is the vehicle. In this case, the pictured wheel is the unresponsive employee who only puts pressure on the business.