A negative work culture can be highly damaging to organizational productivity and growth. Often, workplace negativity can come from managers or leaders and make employees feel helpless. It can result in unhappy, stressed, and demotivated employees who may also try to avoid coming into work.
The results of a toxic work environment can continue to damage the work culture if the negativity isn’t addressed and fixed. Since employees aren’t always comfortable complaining about their managers, detecting and fixing workplace negativity becomes the responsibility of HR personnel. In such cases, HR personnel can use the following tips to fix the negative work culture:
Eliminate Overtime
Due to greater responsibility, managers often work more than junior-level employees. However, the increased work responsibilities of managers also come with increased pay and benefits that junior-level employees don’t get to enjoy.
Toxic managers often forget about this difference and expect their team to put in as much effort as they put in. They demand employees work overtime and stay late in the office regularly.
HR can resolve this issue by eliminating the practice of staying overtime for everyone. Encouraging managers to be more efficient at their job instead of spending more time can also help.
Implement an Open Door Policy
In most organizations, employees are supposed to take their issues through their managers. But when managers don’t allow employees to go to HR or behave in toxic ways, employees can feel that they have no option but to quit. This can lead to increased employee turnover and recruitment expenditure, resulting in the company’s loss.
The open-door policy dictates that HR employees are always available to listen to employee issues and resolve them to their best capacity. It leads to open communication and trust between employees and HR personnel.
Schedule Anonymous Surveys
Anonymous surveys, asking employees about their perception of managers and how they find working with them, can greatly benefit any organization. Despite being stressed by the negative work culture, many employees can be hesitant about complaining. However, a survey that doesn’t ask direct questions, such as “I find working with my manager easy” or “I feel my ideas and opinions are heard,” with options of agreeing and disagreeing can encourage employees to be truthful in their responses.
Encourage Managers to Take Ownership
A toxic work environment is often created by managers that don’t take ownership of work. Instead, they expect their team members to do their share of work and overburden them. They don’t provide necessary guidance and yell at employees if they make mistakes.
However, it is the responsibility of managers and team leaders to ensure that employees are completing their work correctly. Managers and team leads that fail to guide and oversee their team members’ work don’t deserve managerial or leadership positions.
HR should ensure that managers play their part in training and guiding their team members and taking ownership of their projects.
In short, HR should communicate that no employee is above company policies and that all employees must follow company guidelines on behavior and fulfilling their responsibilities. By implementing policies that demand all employees to be vigilant about their work, HR personnel can greatly fix workplace negativity.
