My good friend and colleague, Di Armbrust, in her 2015 book, “The 2% Effect” titled Chapter 6 “Killing Bambi”.
She refers to “killing Bambi” as what happens to the 98% of your good employees when you don’t deal with the 2% of employees causing all the problems. She explains what the 98% do when the 2% do not get managed.
1. They question management’s capability.
2. They look to see if management will do anything, because they want management to do something.
3. Then they talk among themselves, downtime occurs, they are distracted from their work, and on occasion that leads to accidents.
4. And finally, they become resigned to the fact management will do nothing, so they become disengaged and eventually resign themselves.
And, as Di concluded, the people who stay are the 2%ers causing all the problems and the managers who have not successfully managed them.
Yes, managers are responsible for the conduct and performance of their staff. It’s just that sometimes they need help, and the format of that help is what I am arguing is outdated and needs change.
Take my favourite example from a 2010 text by Tovey, Uren, and Sheldon where they provide a performance appraisal flow chart that includes 29 decision points, including 5 that force you to start again. Too complex!
Equally outdated are performance improvement plans that are predominately used to protect the organisation from an unfair dismissal claim.
Instead, when the problem is inappropriate behaviour, there is a proven alternative call Proactive Reengagement Programs (PRPs).
PRP’s are based on helping the employee realise their inappropriate behaviour is causing a business problem and then working together to resolve that problem. It generally takes one meeting, occasionally two, to achieve an agreed outcome for the future.
Statistically most people return stop the inappropriate behaviour and return to being a productive employee. Occasionally, when their behaviour does not change and they are terminated, the process has a 100% success rate at defending any unfair dismissal claims.
If you want to stop killing Bambi, you need to change your approach to the relevant policies and processes. Stop using a 29 point flow chart, replace PIPs with PRPs and then watch your people flourish.
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