What should you do about the high-performing employee who continuously fails to live up to the organisation’s behavioural standards and company values?
How you answer this question sends a very loud message to the rest of your employees and others
If you give a high-achieving employee a pass on behavioural standards, you are telling your employees that financial results are more important than ethics, people and values. If you dismiss the employee, you are telling them that the organisation will uphold its principles – that values guide the organisation’s decision-making.
WHAT ARE BEHAVIOURAL STANDARDS?
Behaviours are the how (i.e. how someone goes about doing his or her job). The targets, goals and KPIs are the what (i.e. the end result). You need both – the what and the how.
WHY DO BUSINESSES NEED BEHAVIOURAL STANDARDS?
Behavioural standards exist to support the values of the business, which in turn support the vision. Along with leadership, the values and behaviours are the most critical components of your organisation’s culture, so it is obviously important to hold employees to clear behavioural standards.
I want to compare two CEOs.
The first CEO was the head of a national sales and marketing company. A sales manager who had been with the company for some time delivered fantastic results each month, but he was widely disliked by his colleagues: he frequently took sole credit for sales that had been the result of teamwork; he over-promised on delivery times (placing undue pressure on the already overburdened distribution team); and he offered customers deep discounts (which helped his sales numbers but eroded profit and damaged the brand). The CEO gave the sales manager chance after chance to improve his conduct. He was coaxed and coached, all to little or no effect. Customers and colleagues complained, but the CEO refused to let the axe fall on his most productive salesperson. By the time the sales manager left, the culture, customer relationships, the brand, and employee morale had all suffered.
Contrast this to the second CEO, who was faced with a similar dilemma. The CEO learned that a high-performing member of her leadership team had been gossiping maliciously, breaching confidentiality, and behaving dishonestly. Some of the behaviour potentially serious enough to damage the external reputation of the organisation, and definitely impacting the culture, employee turnover, and leadership team cohesion. Even though the manager worked well with the CEO, the CEO made the tough decision to exit the manager (after investigation and fair process of course).
To put the matter simply, your company will not be a great employer by allowing employees (even high-performing ones) to duck under the behavioural bar you set when you establish your values. Without enforced behavioural standards, values aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
HOW TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT BEHAVIOURAL STANDARDS
Developing and implementing behavioural standards means that they should be utilised and reinforced as frequently as possible. They should, in a way, guide everything that employees do (and how they do it). To ensure that employees remain on their best behaviour, you’ll need to follow the below six steps.
- When you are developing your vision and values, be sure to develop a list of the behaviours you need people to demonstrate when doing their jobs. Without behavioural standards, though, the vision and the values can lack practicality.
- Behaviours should play a large part in the selection process; behavioural interviews and psychometric testing will help you recognise candidates who will be prone to misbehaviour.
- Also, whenever you are training employees (new or existing ones), be sure to address and reinforce the behavioural standards frequently.
- Your performance review system should include both performance objectives and behavioural standards. Be careful not to overlook behavioural issues when reviewing high-performing employees (do so and these problematic behaviours will, sooner or later, come back to haunt you).
- Reward and recognise employees based on how well they adhere to the behavioural standards.
- If an employee fails to consistently abide by the behavioural standards you’ve chosen to implement, there need to be serious consequences. Use specific examples of times when the employee has failed to abide by behavioural standards; whenever possible, outline how this has negatively impacted their colleagues or the organisation.
Remember, the ‘how’ you go about your job is even more important than the ‘what’, so think seriously about which behaviours you want to promote and which you want to eliminate. Implement the standards in the right way and behavioural issues should be relatively few and far between.
IF YOU NEED SOME GUIDANCE ON HOW TO UPHOLD COMPANY VALUES WITHIN YOUR BUSINESS, TALK TO THE TEAM AT HARRISON HUMAN RESOURCES.
With our flexible HR Consulting services, we are able to provide expert advice and assistance with implementation on a short or long term basis.
Simply click here to request an obligation-free 15 minute phone consult to get some initial advice on your HR needs.
Written by Claire Harrison, Author of The CEO Secret Guide to Managing and Motivating Employees, and Managing Director of Harrison Human Resources.
Claire Harrison is the Founder and Managing Director of Harrisons, a flourishing HR consulting business that sprouted in 2009 from Claire’s passionate belief that inspiring leaders and superstar employees are the key success factor to any business. With over 20 years’ experience, Claire has worked as a HR Director of multi-national organisations, as a Non-Executive Board Director, and a small business owner. Claire’s corporate career includes working with companies such as BHP, Westpac, Fonterra and Mayne Nickless.
