Solving problems in personnel management. Personnel management problems in trading companies
Do you have staff problems? They stop working with dedication, are capricious, do not want to take responsibility and take the initiative in carrying out assignments. Familiar situation?
Do you have staff problems? Our clients often tell us that over time, their employees seem to “burn out” and lose all their enthusiasm for work. They stop working with dedication, are capricious, do not want to take responsibility and take the initiative in carrying out assignments. Familiar situation? As practice shows, sooner or later every manager has problems with personnel management. And now we will try to understand why this is happening.
Long-term experience of "Performance" shows that personnel problems are always the result of management errors... Many executives believe that hiring and injecting productive people is enough to achieve effective company performance. Therefore, having done this, they turn their attention to other issues, and expect that the hired employees will constantly produce the desired results. But, as a rule, these expectations are not met.
It is necessary to understand that personnel management is a living process that requires constant attention and efforts from the management. By not paying attention to the management of employees, the leader can destroy the desire to work even the most productive people. As a result, productivity will inevitably decrease, and, accordingly, the profit of the entire company. However, it is the manager who, by his actions, can change the situation and effectively solve the existing problems of working with personnel. In this article, we will talk about how to do this.
Let's take a look at some of the most pressing HR problems that CEOs face and how they can be addressed:
PROBLEM # 1: Decline in employee motivation
According to our clients, one of the most common problems is the decline in employee motivation. Over time, they lose the desire to invest and achieve results. They begin to work half-heartedly, without any desire.
Of course, you might think that bad employees were just hired. However, if you look at the situation more closely, you can almost always identify a management error that led to the disappearance of interest in the work. Let's analyze some of them.
Very often, an employee loses motivation when he does not feel that his contribution to the development of the company is noticed and appreciated. Such a phenomenon, if not paid attention to in time, can lead to the loss of valuable employees.
Imagine the situation: the new employee comes to the company and does an excellent job in his position. Since he fulfills all assignments with high quality, over time, the scope of his duties expands, and he brings more and more benefits to the company. His colleagues don't do much and work less efficiently. Nevertheless, the merits of this employee are not taken into account: no one notes the quality of his work and the fact that he does much more than others. How would you feel in his place? That's right, disappointment and unwillingness to work further.
If an employee does not see the value of his work for the company, he will not enjoy doing this work. Each person needs to understand that he is doing something meaningful and that his efforts are appreciated. So, always celebrate the achievements of employees and the benefits that they brought to the company by their actions.
A manager's attention is one of the most effective ways to honor an employee and increase his motivation. Therefore, we recommend that you take time to communicate with the most productive employees and reward their merits and achievements with your attention. Face-to-face communication also contributes to building more trusting relationships with employees and helps you to always have an idea of the state of affairs in the company.
Also the decline in employee motivation can often be caused by unfair pay systems.
Let's go back to the diligent employee from our example. He brings the company far more value than some of his peers, yet they all receive the same salary. This shows that his efforts and the significance of the results achieved are underestimated.
We believe that the most effective way to motivate employees is remuneration, which directly depends on the results of their work. By introducing such a salary distribution, you show your staff that you notice the benefits that they bring to the company. Employees will know that the efforts of each person in the team are fairly evaluated, and this will increase their motivation.
Another reason that leads to low staff motivation is the discrepancy between the goals of the employee and the goals of the company. For example, a person who wants to do his job as efficiently as possible gets a job as a mechanic in a salon. And then it turns out that the company is more interested not in the quality of service, but in the fast turnover of the flow of customers. Therefore, the heads of the salon work with suppliers of low-quality parts in order to lower the cost of services. This kind of conflict of interest will clearly have a negative impact on the motivation of the new employee.
On the other hand, a situation is possible when the candidate did not initially plan to develop together with the company, but simply wanted to use it to gain experience or status, which gives the company's image. The same mechanic could get a job in a large salon only in order to build up his own customer base and an image of a valuable specialist, and then, without a doubt, move to another place of work. Therefore, he initially has no motivation to contribute to the prosperity of the company.
Effective work of staff is possible only when the goals of your company coincide with the goals of employees. Therefore, firstly, try find out the motivation of the candidate before hiring. And second, regularly educate your existing staff about your company's goals. Employees will only be willing to help the company fulfill its mission if they know what the company is striving for and share its goals.
PROBLEM # 2: Workforce Resists Innovation
Many managers are faced with the fact that employees resist any innovations. As a result, due to the resistance of the staff, any changes in the company are implemented very slowly and “with a creak”. Of course, the manager can solve this issue by authoritarian methods and simply oblige employees to follow his instructions. But this will negatively affect the efficiency of their work, since all orders related to innovations will be carried out “out of the way”.
In order for a person to be able to do something well, he, first of all, must want to do it. Therefore, the best way to ensure that your new ideas are implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible is to make employees agree with the need for change.
Explaining the reasonableness and significance of innovations to employees is possible only by explaining to them the essencecompany goalsand their value... After all, you want to introduce some innovations because you think that they will help the company achieve its goals, right? For employees to agree with you, it is necessary that they know what you want to achieve and understand the significance of these achievements for the company.
As practice shows, the question of staff enthusiasm for innovations in the company directly depends on the degree of theirinvolvement... It is the employees involved who try to make the maximum contribution to the development of the company. Therefore, the change that will benefit the company, they will accept with joy and will do their best to implement your ideas as quickly and efficiently as possible.
There is another reason why employees are reluctant to innovate in the company. By their personal qualities, they can relate to people who do not like change.... Therefore, every time they have to do something new, they find themselves outside their comfort zone. Therefore, they will do their best to avoid change.
Analyze personal qualities their employees. Perhaps you will see that many of them prefer to act in familiar surroundings and dislike new ones. In this case, we recommend that you implement the changes gradually, rather than abruptly. Explain to the staff the need and usefulness of the planned innovations, and give them time to find out new area better.
If, as a result of upcoming changes, your employees need to carry out new functional responsibilities, it is better to train them in advance. Thus, they will have the opportunity to prepare as much as possible for the changes, and they will more easily accept them. If you can get the consent and support of employees regarding the planned innovations, they will be implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible.
PROBLEM # 3: Employees don't want to learn
The reluctance of employees to learn is one of the most pressing problems with personnel. Personnel training is necessary for the company to develop and keep up with the times. But, as the experience of many leaders confirms, simply getting employees to learn will not have any positive effect. The sense from training is possible only when the employees themselves recognize that they need this knowledge and want to get it. What does the leader need to do for this?
The main reason people are reluctant to learn new things is because they have had experiences with no learning outcomes. The knowledge they received in school and university turned out to be practically useless in life. The same can be said for the various professional trainings. Very often you can find a situation when the training itself is carried out in a lively and fun way, causes a surge of positive emotions, but practically does not give really useful and applicable data. That is why, for productive people who are result-oriented in their work, learning is associated with frustration and lack of real benefit.
The best thing you can do in this situation is talk frankly with employees... Explain to them the real need to gain knowledge in any area. Only by agreeing that they lack some kind of knowledge, workers will be ready to consider the prospect of training. Show how the new knowledge will help them achieve company goals and improve the quality of their work. Next, tell us why you think this training, unlike all the previous ones, will bring real benefits. If possible, familiarize employees with the training program and feedback from those who have already completed it. This way they can make sure that it is real opportunity learn something useful.
Sometimes there are situations when people went through training, really got useful data on it, but due to a lack of self-discipline they postponed their implementation into work “for later”. And then, as a rule, a lot of other things arise, and the inspiration to make some changes very quickly disappears. As a result, they have no results, and disappointment and reluctance to learn anything else come.
To prevent similar situations in your company, demand from employees a plan for the implementation of the knowledge gained during training... Determine with them the time frame required to complete this task, and put in several control points that allow you to monitor their progress. When applying the new data, be sure to mark it. Goals achieved are the best way to motivate. Seeing the practical results that are made possible through training, employees will want to develop and gain new knowledge.
Now we have touched on only a small part of what kind of HR problems managers face. In the future, we will develop this topic in more detail. However, even by correcting these issues, you can “revive” employees' enthusiasm for work and increase their productivity.
remember, that efficient management staff requires your attention and constant interaction with employees... Only in this case you will be able to successfully solve existing problems with personnel and prevent the emergence of new ones.
Good luck and prosperity!
Alexey Samoilenko
You can read all our articles with useful information about working with personnel here: http://performia.com.ua/library/
We are not afraid to work: we will sit down and sit.
"Folk wisdom"
Company personnel as the main asset and business growth potential.
Our consulting practice often gives rise to questions rather than answers. Questions pile up, "settle in a pile" and wait for their finest hour of accumulation of the necessary critical mass for the analysis of this mass and its comprehension.
Another question, which has waited in the wings, concerns the recruitment of personnel in companies. More precisely, not even the recruitment procedure as such, but deeper processes, one way or another concerning this issue, which is extremely important for every business. Now to the point.
In developed (or even, more precisely, thoughtful) businesses, there are standard procedures for the organization's personnel. These are usually considered:
- Planning,
- Hire,
- Development,
- Education,
- Control,
- Motivation,
- Rotation,
- Adaptation,
- Study of,
- Certification.
In a word, the activities related to the organization's personnel are capacious, necessary and extremely responsible. It would seem that everything is very simple: put an intelligent thinking person at the head of the personnel department - and this direction"closed". In general, this is practically the case. But as they say, there are nuances... This is what will be discussed.
Nuance FIRST. Personnel planning.
Take our word for it: probably only one in ten companies know (and apply!) That you need to plan not only finances, purchases, sales, logistics, etc., but also personnel.
A very typical example: a company displays New Product... Accordingly, "everything is according to plan": finances, logistics, equipment ... And when the time "H" comes, SUDDENLY (!) (How else?) sell, etc.). That is, a situation arises like "we go skiing if we find skis." Sound familiar? So if the personnel were planned similarly to other areas of activity (say, finance), then such a situation would not exist in principle.
Nuance SECOND. Staff development.
There is such an observation: the stronger the leader, the weaker the subordinates. The logic is as follows: a leader is a person who is not only burdened with power, but also implies a high level of competence. If a leader has the authority of suppression, then his opinion is always above all and the point of view is the most correct. Over time, this leads to a certain lack of will of subordinates, who turn into performers of the type "I was told to do - I do, they say to think - I will think." The problem, and a significant one, is that if such a leader leaves the company, then none of his subordinates is no longer able to fully replace him due to lack of faith in their own strengths and quickly getting used to the role of a weak-willed performer. Any new leader who comes from outside the "legacy" receives a "managed herd" of employees who can only work "as you, the boss, need it." So, if there were regular personnel development events in the company (courses, trainings, theoretical training, knowledge testing of anything, mentoring, etc.), his competencies and skills, then, firstly, such a situation quickly would be revealed, and secondly, knowledge always gives confidence. Accordingly, it is more difficult to crush a competent employee with authority, and an experienced HR manager gets a talent pool in a timely manner.
The personnel reserve is a kind of "safety cushion" that is very useful when:
- planned or sudden rotation of personnel (vacation, decree, dismissal, illness, long business trip, etc.);
- an increase in orders and, accordingly, the intensity and volume of work;
- the emergence of projects for the implementation of which certain competencies of employees are required.
Nuance THIRD. I don't know who, but someone is needed.
A very common situation for many organizations. The logic of such decisions lies in the fact that with the growth of the scale of the business, a feeling is created that someone is already unable to cope. Another explanation goes like this: we can afford to hire additional staff... Like this. No more, no less. That is, instead of analyzing business processes and measuring the workload on working personnel, the company's management "just in case" decides to recruit employees. Especially often, this is how the number of deputies for various managers increases. In our practice, we met with the fact that in the average turnover and number of companies, the number of deputies for various managers reached five!
We, as consultants, always recommend in this matter to proceed from the understanding of what specifically does not have time to be done in the organization and, in fact, why? Finding answers to these questions puts all the points on the E and often closes the question of the need to hire "someone else."
Nuance FOUR. Hiring.
The main problem associated with personnel in companies is the lack of personnel planning and the most thoughtful procedure (system) for hiring. We said about planning, I think the essence is clear. But as for the actual recruitment SYSTEM - there is still the same problem ...
The recruitment system is a well-thought-out chain of search, selection, testing and hiring of specialists. For specialists of different levels of responsibility (managers, that is), for obvious reasons, it should differ from the system of hiring ordinary employees: not only is it assumed not only a different procedure for interviewing and studying candidates, but also a different procedure for passing interviews: as a rule, the interview is carried out in several stages with an increase in the rank of the interviewer. More on this below.
The most significant, in our opinion, mistakes that, as a well-known rake, lie in wait for an organization that does not have a hiring procedure, are as follows:
1) TOP management does not specify (does not prescribe) the profile of the hired specialist: his experience, industry affiliation, competencies, personality type, character, type of leadership (if we are talking about a manager);
2) The studied qualities of the candidate, his experience, as well as other significant issues are not prescribed. The levels of interviews (i.e. when and who) at which they are studied are not defined;
3) The powers of each of the interviewing levels are not defined;
4) A unified form of report on interviewing a candidate by the company's specialists is not created. There is no connection between the HR department and the top management of the organization;
5) The information given to the candidate is not coordinated (which leads to contradictory answers and the emergence of mistrust on the part of the candidate).
What the above mentioned errors in the recruitment procedure can lead to:
1) If the hiring is done by one person (more often - the head of the personnel department), then the person does it according to OWN vision. Accordingly, everything can be trivially reduced to "like it or not like it." In other words, the selection of personnel (including key personnel) is at the mercy of ONE person, his understanding and vision, his competence, human qualities and pursued goals;
2) If the procedure for hiring personnel is not regulated and is not optimal for a given organization, then some positions can be “closed” for months. You can guess what the lack of a key specialist, for example, a specialist, is fraught with for the organization. Although, we have met in our practice examples when even large manufacturing companies were in a fever because of the absence of only one (!) Required specialist;
3) The company can lose potentially valuable candidates due to the fact that the powers of each of the levels of interviewing are not defined;
4) The company can acquire an unfavorable image due to the lack of consistency in the information given to candidates: such information is quickly spilled into the network on special resources dedicated to reviews about employers, thereby increasing the time it takes to find the necessary candidates.
In our practice, we have encountered situations when it turned out that many (!) Problems in the company are caused precisely by the work of the company's personnel service. It is for this reason that you should not let the personnel-related processes go to chance or be left at the mercy of the head of the personnel service. You just need to understand well that the leader should be accepted by the leader, evaluating not only the "tabular" data during meetings, but also the candidate's business sense, general market orientation, value system, knowledge of the profile market, etc.
A separate and very significant problem is the recruitment of TOP personnel. In the overwhelming majority of companies, hiring top executives follows the same procedure as hiring other employees. The problem is that in addition to questionnaires and checks of the TOP candidate by the HR department, higher-level managers should be involved in him to understand his life and business horizons, such as leadership, psychological stability, etc. In addition, it is extremely advisable to involve security specialists to check the history candidate. Exactly because of this reason personnel service working according to a different scheme of work with TOP candidates, it should not have the ability to challenge a candidate at its level.
Nuance FIFTH. Motivation as a source of dynamics.
It would seem a common truth when interviewing and studying candidates: identifying their motivation. Nevertheless, we very often come across the fact that this work by specialists of the personnel department either is not carried out, or is carried out formally. I would like to note that this issue is very important both for the company as a whole and for specific candidates in particular. The reasons for this are simple:
1) The company (more precisely, its management) must accurately understand the motivational component of each employee. This is required both in order to optimally structure work in relation to each employee (rotation, training, etc.), and in order to develop the most correct version of the motivation system;
2) The management of the company must make the "movement" of personnel in the company, taking into account the motivation of each individual employee. It should be borne in mind that, at a minimum, the positions that “earn” money for the company should be occupied by employees for whom material motivation is paramount.
Motivation is a definite guarantee that the goals of the company become the goals of the employees. It is for this reason that it should not be underestimated as the very fact of finding out intrinsic motivation employees, as well as the creation of a full-fledged personnel motivation system.
Nuance SIX. Personnel certification.
How many times have the world been told that the level of knowledge and skills of the personnel ALWAYS tends to decrease. The reason for this is some kind of "reassurance" of the employees, connected with the confidence that since I work here, it means that I am satisfied with everyone. Well, of course, and Self-confidence in their own "professionalism", based on experience and work experience (in the industry, at the enterprise or in the specialty in general).
Personnel certification, as a system, is necessary in order to:
1) The level of knowledge and skills of employees not only did not decrease, but also gradually increased;
2) To identify the most knowledgeable, competent employees for the purpose of development human resources companies;
3) Make changes to the personnel motivation system in the form of an increase in the category, category, etc. With the right and transparent approach, this will have a beneficial effect on other employees of the company.
In relation to this nuance, it is necessary to understand that if the staff is not maintained in a certain tone, then after a while the situation begins to resemble such a calm swamp with all the ensuing consequences. It is necessary to understand that very often the company, as an organization, and employees, have mutually opposite goals. So the company should try with all its might to achieve its goals in order for the business to remain at least afloat, and as a maximum - to actively develop. This, among other things, is ensured by the increasing efficiency of the personnel, the increasing level of knowledge and skills of the personnel. It is for this reason that it is worth paying increased attention to the issue of certification of the organization's personnel. It is clear that certification of personnel is a periodic and secondary procedure in relation to training and advanced training of employees.
Nuance SEVEN. Staff adaptation.
Experienced personnel officers know that the most "dangerous" period for newly hired employees is the first two months of work. During this period, not only the new employee is assessed, but also the employee assesses the organization and its team for compliance with its value system, and also searches for a certain "comfort zone" for itself: determining potential psychological and business compatibility with managers, the team, and also makes assessment of own prof. suitability in a new place.
In order for a new employee to PASS this period and pass with the maximum benefit for the organization and himself, it is required that the entire period probationary period(or the date of induction, if there is no probationary period as such) he was the slave (as far as possible) employee (or not one) responsible for his adaptation.
From experience, we will say that for the fastest and most effective adaptation of new employees, it is necessary to prepare (and approve) an adaptation program in advance with the obligatory indication:
- the employee (s) who are responsible for induction;
- parameters and results to be achieved by the new employee at the end of the adaptation period;
- calendar schedule induction (who, where, what, at what time what knowledge / skills gives / checks, etc.);
- intermediate results that a new employee should achieve (say, every month for the first three to five months);
- parameters of material and / or non-material incentives for employees involved in the adaptation process in case of successful certification of a new employee.
A new employee must have a list from the moment of employment theoretical issues and practical skills to be tested at the end of the adaptation period (or probationary period). This will concretize its adaptation period and determine the benchmarks.
Nuance EIGHT. Staff rotation.
Rotation is the process of labor movement of employees throughout the organization. That is, it is the use of a person in different production areas and / or in different positions in the interests of the organization. It is worth agreeing on the terms: rotation without promotion - horizontal rotation, rotation with promotion - vertical rotation.
The basis of personnel rotation is the ability to use the labor resources of the enterprise in an optimal way for the organization. In order to have more opportunities for personnel rotation, it is necessary to train personnel in related (and not only) professions, giving skills, knowledge and checking their level. The process is more successful in the case of its material incentives, when the organization pays extra money to an employee for mastering an additional profession (s) or stimulates it in another sensitive way (for example, adding days to vacation). Our experience in consulting projects on manufacturing enterprises suggests that this measure is capable of both reducing personnel costs and protecting the organization from situations when “the pilot is ill, there will be no aviation”. That is, thanks to the additional competencies of the personnel, the organization has the opportunity to more flexible and rational personnel management.
Vertical rotation is the process of “growing” your own leaders in an organization. If a person stands out from the general mass of employees, if he shows results and seeks to understand more and do better, then it is worth betting on such employees, promoting them in the organization. Such employees, as a rule, are quicker to integrate into new functionality and find a common language with colleagues than outside personnel.
* * * * *
As a summary
1. Personnel is one of the most (if not the most) significant resource (more precisely, an ASSET!) Of any organization. Neither buildings and structures, nor equipment and mechanisms, nor finances - it is the personnel that is the basis of any organization and its driving force. For this reason, work with personnel is an extremely important and responsible area of work, which top management must plan, coordinate and control. The most precious thing an organization has is its employees, take our word for it. Remember this.
2. It is necessary to try to attract employees:
- with a POSITIVE attitude in life, who are accepted for any business with an inner attitude " everything will work out", but not " it's impossible»;
- able-bodied, who are able to quickly understand and do it right and quickly;
- who deliberately go to a new place TO BE USEFUL, and not serve a number (go to work);
- who want to make money or make BIG MONEY. Exactly to EARN !;
- who are able to live and work SYSTEMICALLY;
- who understand and love the ORDER (in the head, at work, at the workplace);
- who are able to work FOR THE RESULT;
- who “will not give up their own and will not be overused for someone else's” - those who are able to respect the values and property of the organization and treat them rationally.
For those who have read to the end, there is a small bonus in the form of a well-thought-out recruitment application form. You can take it.
I wish you success in the difficult task of personnel management!
Personnel management of an institution is currently an important topic. This is a set of principles, methods and forms of influencing the activities of employees to improve results in the performance of work duties. The problems of personnel management are urgent not only for the management, but also for the people who work at the enterprise.
The ideal scenario for the development of the situation is when people work at the firm with high quality and do their job on time, and the employer does not treat them strictly with excessive demands. But this scenario is extremely rare for various reasons that prevent it. A manager who wants to achieve maximum productivity results in the company should have in stock, in addition to his experience, various technologies aimed at systemic formation the effectiveness of relations in the organization and a quick analysis of emerging issues, tasks and difficulties.
Personnel management of an enterprise is a multifaceted and complex task, for the solution of which large financial, time and organizational costs are required. The problems of personnel management are associated with the fact that the chief has to manage not just a team of ordinary people, which is already a difficult task, but a team of professionals who, for the most part, have practical skills and often even a higher education.
What are the actual problems of personnel management that may arise?
With the wrong leadership, such topical problems in personnel management can arise:
- not a very good reputation of the enterprise)
- unsatisfactory quality of goods)
- increasing the chances of going bankrupt.
In most cases, problems in personnel management arise due to the fault of the management (according to statistics, about 71%). All this is due to the fact that managers are not always able to competently and well manage employees.
The efficiency of personnel in the company always depends on the manager to some extent. Hence, a number of problems may arise: failure of the manager to notice the crisis at an early stage, the assumption that all problems are temporary difficulties, tightening of employee discipline, increased punishment of employees, rash decisions by the management due to a stressful state, theft of staff, mass exodus.
Nowadays, many workers' rights are violated, but this may be the fault not only of the manager, but also of the employee, who can perform his work poorly or poorly. It is because of this that a conflict can arise. To achieve a good result in such a delicate matter as personnel management, you need to constantly monitor existing problems in the institution. It is necessary to constantly learn the skill of personnel management in order to avoid various problems.
There are a number of problems that arise when managing employees:
All of these topical problems of personnel management that we have considered indicate that they need to be solved and no longer repeated, and only a good leader can cope with this with the help of theoretical and practical methods. the main objective HR management is the ability to effectively use the skills of employees in accordance with the goals of the organization. But at the same time, you always need to pay attention to working conditions, preserving the health of each employee and establishing the right relationships in the team.
The actual problem of a modern working person is work to wear, excessive professional stress, nervous overstrain. As a result - professional and emotional burnout, chronic depression, fatigue, apathy, indifference to life. In the race for recognition, money or high rank, a person gives all his best, goes to his goal, strives for the desired with all his soul. However, often, having come to his dream, he does not feel happiness - emotionally the person is so exhausted that he simply does not feel joy.
The employee burnout syndrome is not fictional. This is a real "disease of the XXI century", which affects entrepreneurs, employees of large companies and avid workaholics. If you do not turn on the "reset" in time, the "disease" will progress, pulling the person to the very bottom. How to timely recognize and prevent the emotional and professional burnout of employees in your company?
Caution High Voltage: Employee Burnout
For the first time, the dangerous diagnosis of "burnout" was discussed in 1974. American psychiatrist G. Fredenberg conducted research in the staff of workers large company and revealed symptoms of a gradual decrease in their enthusiasm for work, psychological exhaustion. Employees complained of a loss of interest in their usual work, a decrease in labor productivity, a decline in activity, and labor zeal. Moreover, this state had nothing to do with ordinary body fatigue - emotional burnout was closely associated with employment, work, and its symptoms did not go away after rest or sleep.
Professional burnout- this is a general negative state of a person that develops against the background of chronic stress in conditions professional activity and leading to mental and emotional depletion of the inner resources of the individual.
In the process of work, each employee experiences stress of any kind - physical, emotional, psychological. Life cannot be complete without them modern man... However, with insignificant regular stress, the body copes with stress on its own, a natural "reboot" occurs quickly, without causing significant deformations in the consciousness and daily life of a person. But when an employee is constantly exposed to powerful loads, negative situations “wind up” in a tight ball, are postponed, accumulate in a huge “snowball”. Without “discharge,” negativity puts pressure on consciousness, exhausts a person, and, as a result, professional burnout sets in.
Emotional burnout in professional activity is a consequence of a person's long-term stay in a stressful atmosphere, which has arisen as a result of accumulated internal contradictions with the factors surrounding him.
The victims of the syndrome are most often employees, whose activities are associated with constant, personal communication with people and nervous strain. This category of employees includes:
- Sales managers
- Doctors
- Psychologists
- Social workers
- CEOs of companies
- Teachers
- Lawyers
Persons with certain character traits are more prone to burnout syndrome. These are humane idealistic personalities, introverts, sensitive, vulnerable people who are characterized by a low level of mental resistance to the negative influence of the environment. It was also revealed that women are more prone to professional burnout than men, due to their innate emotionality.
According to statistical studies (Kadrovik magazine, 2011), the following categories of persons are most prone to professional burnout:
- Leadership (43%)
- Active employees, workaholics (40%)
- Creative personalities (35%)
- Sales Managers (28%)
- Professionals close to retirement age (22%)
- Workers engaged in daily routine tasks (20%)
- Beginners without a coach, mentor (5%)
Burnout: Causes of a Fire Problem
According to many psychologists, burnout is a kind of defense mechanism that is activated by the body in response to traumatic factors. As a rule, the human nervous system has its own limit of conducted psychological processes, for example, communication, perception, attention, solving some problems. During the day, a specific person can pay attention to a limited number of people, perceive a certain amount of information, and solve a range of tasks. If a person regularly exceeds this limit, an overstrain of the nervous system occurs, followed by exhaustion and emotional burnout. "Bright colors of the day" fade, turn gray, apathy, indifference, irritation comes.
In addition, professional burnout occurs very rapidly in the case of activities related to intensive communication with people. In the process of communication, each person exchanges energy with an opponent and expects a positive response in return. However, in some cases the interlocutor "answers" with silence, hostility, indifference. From such communication, the active side is simply exhausted, throws out its energy, which evaporates like a sip of clean water under the scorching sun. As a result - moral and emotional devastation, alienation, cynicism, a state of complete indifference.
The main causes of the syndrome professional burnout:
- The routine, monotony of the working day
- Overloading with work or, conversely, having free time not filled with work activities
- Negative, unhealthy atmosphere in the team (arrogant communication or hazing)
- Work associated with constant communication with strangers
- Low-paid activities, lack of professional growth, career development
- Low self-organization
- Lack of motivation system in the organization
- Regular change of management, constant changes in work duties, incorrect delegation of duties and responsibilities
Emotional Burnout of Employees: Symptoms of Work Poisoning
Burnout syndrome in a company does not go unnoticed. Symptoms of "pathology" are displayed not only emotionally, but also affect other important aspects of a person.
Signs of employee burnout syndrome are conventionally divided into three blocks:
1. Symptoms of the psychophysical plan:
- Constant fatigue, which manifests itself not only in the evening, but also does not go away in the morning after waking up
- Feeling exhausted (physically and emotionally), decreased tone and energy
- Lack of curiosity, feeling of novelty
- Decreased defensiveness, lack of fear in dangerous situation
- Weight gains (loss or gain in weight for no apparent reason)
- Insomnia
- Disturbances in the work of certain body systems (indigestion, headaches, breathing dysfunctions)
- Lethargy, drowsiness during the day
- Deterioration of vision, touch, smell
2. Socio-psychological characteristics:
- Anxiety for no reason, causeless worry, fear
- Nervous breakdowns
- Indifference, apathy, passivity, depression
- Irritability, outbursts of anger even for minor troubles
- Constant digging into emerging emotions (guilt, shame, resentment, isolation) Underestimation of one's own abilities
- Negative attitudes towards professional and personal prospects
3. Changes in human behavior:
- Feeling meaningless and hard to work
- Inability to complete important tasks during the working day, waste of time on small details, "stupor" in processes that do not require special attention
- Distance from colleagues, inadequate, negative reaction to communication, aggression, increased criticality
- Stable fading of motivation to work, indifference to one's own achievements
- Regular violation of the working regime (arrival later, leaving - earlier than expected) Difficulty making any decisions
- The emergence of bad habits (alcohol, drug abuse, smoking)
Burnout of employees is dangerous both for themselves and for the organization. The result can be problems such as systematic staff turnover, the emergence of a negative atmosphere in the team, and a decrease in the productivity of the entire company. Of course, not all employees in a company are prone to burnout - avid activists and optimists have high degree resistance to this syndrome. However, not everyone has such qualities and a kind of approach to work. What to do? Timely carry out the prevention of employee burnout and eradicate the problem at the stage of its inception - and this should be done not only by the company, but also by the employees themselves.
Don't Burn Out: Preventing Occupational Burnout
It is impossible to completely eliminate the influence of negative and harmful factors in the process of work. However, properly implemented prevention of professional burnout will help prevent the consequences of the syndrome, help employees gain faith in their capabilities and take a fresh look at their, even if routine and boring, responsibilities. The main thing is the correct attitude and a positive approach to the problem! All in our hands!
From the side of the organization, the dominant prevention areas that prevent employee burnout are:
An important mission of management is to correctly assign priorities, highlight the goals of the company and convey them to employees. As an example, you can consider the old parable of the builders who were engaged in one business, but associated it in different ways. The first one simply “dragged a heavy, damn car with building materials", The second" earned money for his family ", and the third -" participated in the unique construction of a beautiful cathedral. " The correct formulation of the task is the main condition that motivates employees.
Employees themselves must also make an effort to ensure that work is not a heavy burden, emotionally and psychologically exhausting, but a pleasant and rewarding activity. The prevention of emotional burnout on the part of employees consists in the correct positioning of problems, looking at troubles in a new direction and distraction:
- As you work, switch to other topics and take short breaks. Psychologists recommend looking around, noting the smallest details of the interior of nature, mentally saying them to yourself. This simple technique will allow you to extract stressful moments from your mind, switch to a positive note and relax.
- Treat stressors with a positive, and also reduce the importance of unpleasant, traumatic situations, no matter how difficult it may be. Remember, people are not the cause of your stress, but your attitude towards the situation. Look at things easier, “let go” of the problem, treat the troubles with humor.
- Connect loads of the physical plane. Light exercise, fitness before work, an active walk in the evening (lunchtime), the release of energy by hitting a pillow (pear) - any method is good, if only after it you feel a surge of energy and cheerfulness.
- Abstraction from work thoughts at home, while on vacation. Your brain should be able to switch to rest, leave professional tasks as far as possible within the walls of the office.
- Distribute correctly work time, try not to "overwhelm" yourself with work, dose the work, be able to postpone something and "for tomorrow."
- Be creative, find a new hobby for yourself, an interesting activity to your liking. Dance samba, draw aliens, paint pictures by numbers, lay out puzzles - in your free time, get distracted and do what brings you joy.
- Use effective methods of self-regulation. Try anti-stress breathing, write and repeat autogenic training phrases to help stabilize emotions, and meditate.
- Avoid even in the most difficult situation, try to build and defend your position, be able to manage the dialogue. Sign up for effective trainings that will help you look at your problem from the outside, identify shortcomings or mistakes in communication and management. Interesting course Vladimir Tarasov's Ideal Subordinate will help you learn about the methods of interaction between a manager and a subordinate, learn the art of submission and get management tools that will be useful not only in business, work, but also in everyday life.
Remember: life is not just work. There are also a lot of pleasant activities that will give you extraordinary feelings of emotional pleasure, delight, help to return feelings of novelty and happiness. Communicate with family members, spend leisure time with your family, travel, share positive emotions, do not focus only on work. After all, life is beautiful: you have only one!
- Which employees are most susceptible to professional burnout?
- When does it help just to have a heart-to-heart conversation?
- How to arrange emotional relief for employees
- 5 common causes of burnout that everyone's forgotten about
Professional burnout is a process that manifests itself in increasing indifference to your duties and what is happening at work, a sense of their own professional inconsistency, dissatisfaction with work, and ultimately in a sharp deterioration in the quality of life. In this article, we will consider 5 main reasons that can provoke professional burnout in employees, and how it can be prevented.
Reasons for professional burnout
Reason 1. Work for wear. When workers have to work to their limit, constant stress persists at all times. At some point, professional burnout occurs because of this. To identify such burnout, the most effective way becomes conducting confidential conversations.
To prevent negative consequences for another initial stage, you can offer an employee an extra day off or send him on a paid vacation. Such rest gives the opportunity to restore one's strength. For example, I recently noticed a significant decline in the work of one of the top managers. He has established himself as a true professional, having successfully completed many projects. But such an active work of a specialist negatively affected his condition, professional burnout occurred. Based on the results of the conversation with him, I suggested a trip to Thailand - to participate in an event that we organized together with the company's business partners. Such a business vacation turned out to be really effective for a specialist who was able to perfectly recuperate and began to work effectively.
- Emotional Intelligence is a Powerful Weapon for a True Leader
Every month I organize meetings in which the entire management team of our company participates. In a comfortable informal atmosphere, the situation in our company is discussed, with the search for optimal solutions and ways to eliminate current problems. We organize not just a meeting, but a kind of master class - each of our leaders shares his experience with colleagues, while getting the opportunity to learn from others. We work together to solve problems until they expose one of the employees to professional burnout separately.
Reason 2. Unstable financial position of the company. We have to admit that in many companies wages are delayed by employees. If a similar situation may arise in our company, it is better to immediately gather employees and explain the reasons for the problem with payments and the expected time frame for the normalization of the situation. Experience has shown that many employees are ready to understand the position of their management.
For example, in the real estate market, most of the failures with money payments occurred during the crisis. We were forced to face this problem too. Then I decided to gather a team, honestly explaining the future prospects of the company, invited each of them to decide for themselves - to look for new job either wait for money. Many remained then. It turned out that these are the most reliable personnel for the company, which the manager should especially value.
Reason 3. Routine. The day-to-day tasks of most employees remain the same from day to day. After 1-1.5 years, there is a desire to supplement the work with something new, but such an opportunity does not always exist. The total number of our employees is over 3.5 thousand people, so we regularly encountered a similar situation.
Emotional relief is the optimal prevention of professional burnout. Therefore, we regularly conduct various cultural trips (to the theater, to exhibitions), with the organization of interesting corporate events(sports competitions, picnics in nature). In particular, we are planning to organize a game similar to Fort Boyard on Builder's Day. Anything unusual increases the interest of employees, giving them additional vitality.
To do this, the following measures are useful to maintain the tone of your team:
- Conducting educational trainings.
- Expansion of functions. If an employee in a heart-to-heart conversation complains about his tiredness from monotony and his skills have already reached the stage of automatism, I can invite him to share his knowledge and skills with less experienced colleagues - for example, to become the head of a mini-department.
- Raising salaries or in a position (such decisions are made subject to the achievement of individual KPIs.
- Internships in other departments of our company, abroad or in the regions of the country (for example, they offered their chief architect to participate in green-building courses held in Ireland. Today he successfully uses the knowledge gained in the courses in practice, helping the company to develop).
Reason 4. Dissatisfaction with bosses and colleagues. Workers in mid-sized companies often lack the power to make decisions on their own. The consequence of the lack of sufficient freedom in work is professional burnout. Consider an example of such a situation - the head of one of the departments faced the problem of delegating authority after increasing the number of his subordinates. Previously, I did everything on my own and was afraid that when delegating my tasks it would be unnecessary. Many face similar concerns. They believe that they are irreplaceable, and no one can handle the job at the proper level. I had to take part in this issue, explaining to our employee that the delegation of their powers becomes necessary in a multifunctional mode of operation. Changes like these need to take place in a planned manner, so that each employee is responsible for a piece of work that they can handle. After all, there is no need to immediately overload workers with duties, they should increase their workload in stages - only such a condition allows maintaining stable growth and further development your department. Such communication and clarification of the situation allowed our employee to cope with the problem.
- Conflicts between employees: why they arise and how to solve them
Personal conflicts between employees arise in the work of any company. Personally, I think that at the same time, an effective manager cannot be left on the sidelines - it is necessary to be able to resolve such problems. Let's consider an example from the practice of our company. Two heads of one of the departments quarreled so much that the conflict directly affected the quality of their work. I decided to delimit the area of responsibility of each of them - for one Moscow and Moscow region, for the second all the other regions. Consequently, a certain competitive environment between them. Thanks to this approach, it was possible to retain important employees, having achieved the efficiency of the enterprise.
Reason 5. The impossibility of career advancement. When starting work in the company, many young people believe that after six months they will be able to achieve a promotion, starting to rapidly overcome the steps up the career ladder. When such success is not achieved, then their efficiency is significantly reduced. To avoid this situation, HR specialists should engage in explanatory conversations about career prospects, considering real-life examples of how a certain specialist was able to achieve career growth in the company, and what was needed for this.
|
Is talking General manager Mikhail Zhukov, Managing director by HeadHunter, Moscow Based on the results of their research, they were able to determine that only a few domestic employers monitor the emotional state of employees in their team in order to influence it in a timely manner. The majority of respondents (about 80%) emphasized that they felt professional burnout - in the form of fatigue, irritability and loss of motivation for work. The onset of professional burnout syndrome can be influenced by the motivation system. At correct organization the motivation system manages to maintain the fighting spirit of its employees for many years, while maintaining their desire to achieve high results. If the company does not pay due attention to motivation issues, then employees will often ask for a promotion or salary - only such measures will contribute to their desire to give all the best at work. Worse than neglect of motivation is wrong organizational system... The consequence of 2-3 mistakes in matters of emotional or financial incentives is the loss of a person's desire to work. When an employee develops a burnout syndrome, there is no need to rush to fire him. You always need to understand the reasons for this situation. Indeed, in the event that something is done incorrectly in the company, you will often have to think about changing employees. It should be borne in mind that often employees call a conversation with a manager one of the means of solving their problems. Therefore, it is important for employees to understand that the manager is aware of their professional difficulties. |
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