We all can have our moments. Moments when we are happy, sad, miffed, and difficult. If an employee who usually exhibits relatively happy and cooperative behavior and suddenly or unexpectedly shifts behaviors for the worst, then it’s probably due to some out of the ordinary happenstance.  This employee may need some time off or require services such as a counselor or legal advice that is outside our skill set as managers. It’s those employees who exhibit consistently difficult behavior that are the issue.

These employees try our patience and emotions. However, patience and controlling our emotions are of paramount necessity to help handle these trying people. This is increasingly difficult to pull off when dealing with these types of behaviors is a daily occurrence. Let’s look at some of the causes and cures of these difficult personalities.

One of the biggest contributors to poor employee engagement is the lack of a structured employee development program. Several sources suggest that about half of organizations have no employee development program. Some that do have such a program, describe it as broken, or outdated.

Just as with anything, creating an employee development plan involves strategy and prework. This prework begins long before anyone makes a hire, advertises an opening, writes a job description, or even before someone decides what positions the organization will fill. What ideas can an organization implement to ensure that an employee development program is successful?

Organizations often lament high turnover and its costs. Indeed, it can be costly and there is a plethora of information on the internet, in books, white papers, and studies to assure you of this fact. But is all turnover bad? The truth is that turnover wears two faces as there is both good and bad turnover. OK, before you have me put in a straight jacket, hear me out.

Here’s a question for you, if a poor performer, toxic employee, or a bad fit for your culture quits, is that good or bad? It will no doubt be good. Now it may be that the toxic employee, just as an example, was there a long time and had become a sacred cow, that employee may take a lot of knowledge out of the organization. Losing the knowledge is bad, but you only have yourself to blame for allowing the toxic employee to remain as long as they did. In fact, the toxic employee may have been the cause of good, highly productive, and other knowledgeable employees leaving in the past and that’s bad. Thus, the two faces of turnover. What do these two faces look like?

Sitting outside my office door, a manager is interviewing a candidate in a meeting room. He is talking loudly and non-stop. The manager did not ask the candidate any questions. Even if a question was forthcoming, the candidate couldn’t get a word in edgeways. How the manager thought this technique was providing good information about a candidate, I’ll never know.

Other managers use the technique that anyone who shows up, can state their name, complete paper work, and pass the drug test gets the job. Just another warm body.

Still others don’t feel it’s necessary to prepare. They have a few stock questions they ask every candidate and if the answers are even close, the job is theirs.

Being in a job interview is not news. However, it seems that being a good interviewer just might make headlines! We’ve all been in job interviews. It’s sad to say, but most of the time, the candidate is better at interviewing than the interviewer. Having a career in HR brought this fact home to me as the opportunity to observe both candidates and the hiring manager puts me, and now you, in a rare position of sitting on both sides of the desk.