Pigs in the mud: Don’t just manage the problem, prevent it!

Whether it’s a negative co-worker bringing down morale (“Come on down here in the mud with me”), turf wars, disagreements or differences of opinion, workplace conflict is nearly always detrimental to employee engagement, performance and productivity.

Negative employees are the ultimate drains on productivity. Some people simply manifest negativity: They’re unhappy with their job, position, coworkers, assignments, or life in general. In their view, they’re always treated unfairly, and they are the victim of the latest office disagreement. Every organization has them, but your business doesn’t need to knowingly recruit more of them!

One of the many hats worn by HR Professionals is “mediator of employee disagreements.” You are often responsible for creating and maintaining interpersonal work environments that are conducive to producing great work. Intervention in conflicts between employees, or groups of employees, is a necessary function of the HR job. Left uncontrolled, workplace conflict can easily escalate to workplace disaster!

While HR professionals may choose from many different strategies to handle workplace conflicts, I suspect most would choose to prevent them, instead! With a thoughtful choice of assessment tools, recruiters can determine if an applicant is likely to become a problem in the workplace. Once employees are in the workplace, a different set of assessment tools may provide the information HR needs to mitigate or eliminate interpersonal conflicts.

In the recruiting scenario, valid and reliable assessments can measure and predict a variety of behaviors and attitudes essential to conflict prevention and reduction: Optimism, flexibility, open-mindedness, work ethic, even attitudes toward workplace violence can be measured. In recruiting or post-hire, proven job fit measures can be used to match workers with supervisors who are a good fit, and to construct teams that really work as teams! With some of these measures, reports can even provide what amounts for an “operator’s manual” for workplace relationships.

In most manufacturing environments, “preventative maintenance” is a necessary practice to prevent costly breakdowns and waste of materials; in healthcare, “preventative care” is a routine approach to reducing major and costly health problems. In your own business, or your role in the business, consider making “conflict prevention” a core concept in your planning—it will not only reduce your costs, but also make your time at your workplace more enjoyable!

Let us know, if you’d like a no-obligation demonstration of these tools!