Employers should assist workers with personal problems
MANY employers have lost good workers because of failure to assist employees deal with work related and personal challenges that have an impact on their performance. Jane, a bookkeeper was going through a messy divorce where her husband had kicked her out of the matrimonial home, withdrawn the car she was using to come to work and her three children had been forcibly transferred from a Harare school to a rural school to live with the husband’s parents.
Further, Jane was an only child and her parents were late leaving her with a weak extended family support structure. Of late, Jane has been arriving late at work, she makes errors at work, is withdrawn, she hardly talks to anyone and at times comes to work with unironed clothes. All this were never part of Jane; she now sits with a notice to attend a disciplinary hearing over poor timekeeping, substandard performance and shabby dressing.
This is a typical case that does not need to be dealt with through the disciplinary process but the employer has to dig into the causes of change in Jane’s behaviour and provide appropriate assistance and counselling.
Many employers argue that they cannot go about smelling workers with problems. While that is true, it is the duty of everyone in a supervisory position to worry about the welfare of subordinates, both physical and mental if workers are to achieve set objectives.
Supervisors and managers should develop the trust of subordinates and have skills to get workers to open up about issues that block their path towards meeting work targets.
Where a manager or supervisor fails to manage employees’ personal private and work related challenges, work targets are unlikely to be met as the worker’s energies will be focused on many things.
Some of the signs that a manager or supervisor is failing to manage employees’ personal private and work related challenges are increased employee absenteeism, stressed workers, employees with anger management problems, frequent conflicts amongst workers, rude behaviour and many others. It is important for managers and supervisors to develop skills of picking these problems from amongst their subordinates and take corrective action.
The sad thing is that at times managers and supervisors create problems for workers resulting in productivity loss. I recall a supervisor who denied an employee time to visit her daughter in hospital after the daughter had been injured at a mission boarding school and had been operated upon to save her life.
When the employee requested for a day off to visit her sick daughter, she was told to wait for the weekend. The worker continued to come to work but was crying everyday in front of other workers who also got affected by the plight of their colleague. That week productivity was down. Surely the supervisor could have benefitted more by being sensitive and realising the negative ripple effects of his conduct.
In conclusion, employees need assistance to manage personal and work related problems that impact on their ability to work as such there is a need to have managers and supervisors trained in human capital management.
Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: Email: stratwaysmail@ yahoo.com