PROBLEM SOLVING

There will be times in spite of your best efforts and careful planning, that performance problems will arise. At this point, you're going to have to take some time to stop and examine what happened, discuss the problem with the employee, and try to come up with some kind of a solution. Here are some basic approaches.

1. Define the problem. Decide for yourself what you expected the employee to do. Then, clarify in your own mind what exactly the employee did and how is that different from what was expected? And, how serious is the problem? If an employee spends too much time on the telephone, conducting personal business, clarify for yourself why this is a problem. Is it a problem because the employee is spending too much time away from their work assignment and not getting anything done, or is he/she getting their work done in spite of the time spending on the phone?
2. Before you even talk to the employee, consider some possible, acceptable solutions. If the employee found a way to get all of their work done, but continued to talk on the telephone, would that be all right? If the employee made personal phone calls from a pay phone in the break area, would that be acceptable? Or, is the real problem that there is a rule that says no personal calls and the employee seems to be giving a defiant example to other employees?
3. Meet with the employee. If the problem is going to be serious or involved or very personal, be sure that you have the discussion in a private setting, during work hours. Try to meet in a place that's comfortable for both of you. If the problem is a work-related problem in which you're simply getting input from the employee, and it isn't going to take long to discuss, you can probably do it at a workstation.
4. Present the problem to the employee in as clear a way as possible. Tell the employee what he/she is doing or not doing, how that is different from what's expected, and explain why this particular behavior is a problem. Be sure to focus on behavior, rather than personality. That means that you have to talk about what the employee did rather than your judgment about why they did it. That means that you talk about finding them "asleep in the corner," rather than calling them "lazy." Try to use examples of the problem performance as you talk to the employee.
5. Get the employee's input. Be sure he/she agrees that whatever happened is actually a problem. One of the major reasons for difficulty in problem-solving is that when we sit down to talk with someone, we talk about the problem and possible solutions but never get agreement from the employee that what occurred was a problem, and that the employee has a responsibility for helping to solve the problem. Listen to the employee's version of what happened and to his reasons for doing what he did. Ask for his input about various aspects of the problem and try to solicit from him/her possible solutions to the problem.
6. Pick a mutually agreeable solution. If at all possible, try to solve the problem in a way that makes sense to the employee, as well as to the supervisor or employee. If there's any chance whatever, for disagreement later, or for confusion, be sure that you write down what you decide to do.
7. Get a commitment from the employee. Ask him when he/she will begin to resolve the problem, find out how long he/she thinks it will take, and what sort of help or support he will need.

Your goal throughout this process is to establish a spirit of cooperation. It's important that there be a feeling of trust between the employee and the supervisor. The employee will be most likely to trust a supervisor who has been consistent, open and honest with him/her in the past. Supervision is an ongoing process and much of our success will depend upon your record and past dealing with employees.

As you work out a problem, try to take away any threat to the employee. Use your energy trying to understand the problem clearly. Look for solutions. It's easy to get trapped into a long and involved argument about who was at fault. Fault-finding burns up energy that could be used to solve the problem.

Not enough can be said for soliciting the solution form the employee. You literally want the words to come out of the employee's mouth. If the employee tells you his/her plan for resolving the problem, and the solution is an acceptable one, he/she will be more likely to remember the solution, a commitment will be felt toward the following through with the solution, and he/she will feel more a part of the organization.