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    How do I deal with a challenging member of staff?

    When certain members of your team aren't pulling their weight, are being disruptive or show signs of feeling frustrated the easy thing to do is put your head in the ground. However, if left unaddressed the problem and multiply and end up impacting lots of other people in the business. Use the resources we have laid out below to tackle the situation head on and get staff back on track.

    Ways to help you deal with it:

    Action plan

    Managing a challenging member of staff

    Effort : Medium
    Impact : Medium

    Left unaddressed, challenging or disruptive members of staff can start to have a big impact on business culture, atmosphere and performance. Getting to the heart of the underlying emotion is of upmost importance and, more often than not, can lead to quick and impactful improvement.

    ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

    • We explain why each step is important
    • Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

    Action plan

    Create your company's future leaders

    Effort : High
    Impact : Medium

    Recruitment is expensive, particularly when it comes to senior leadership roles. Cultivating from within lets you firstly identify who is most engaged with your business and where it is trying to get to and then, bit by bit, set out an individual plan that lets you and your management team delegate more and take on new challenges safe in the knowledge that there are more people to share the responsibility load.

    Action plan

    Develop the right approach to health and wellbeing

    Effort : High
    Impact : High

    While some changes you make in your business can adopt a more standardised approach, looking after the health and wellbeing of your people is something that needs more tailored approach. Your employees have chosen to work for you for a reason, but that will only last in today's day and age if an employer continues to proactively ensure the stresses and strains of work are not becoming too much. There's a lot to learn from the way others have made improvements, but it all comes down to getting your people involved from minute one.

    Guide

    An introduction to dealing with a challenging member of staff

    Every business will come across a challenging member of staff at some point. Learning how to deal with the situation effectively is essential if you want to avoid a negative impact on the rest of your workforce.

    GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

    • Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
    • Filled with real-world stories
    • Achievable steps every business can take

    Other support that’s available

    How to deal with difficult employees

    How to deal with difficult employees

    Having a plan to manage difficult employees is imperative. See what Forbes believes are the most important steps to consider.

    Dealing with conflict in a positive way

    Dealing with conflict in a positive way

    The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) is an expert at people-related issues and have helpfully broken down the topic of conflict at work.

    How other businesses have tackled something similar

    Real business story

    Radical candour stops challenging situations becoming bigger issues

    Managing challenging employees is one of the most daunting parts of being a leader. Employee engagement is easier when things are going swimmingly, but what do you do when there’s an issue?.
    Hannah Dawson, founder of Futrli

    Real business story

    A great culture doesn't mean blowing the budget

    The average full-time British employee will spend over 3,500 days at work during their lifetime, so it’s vital that business leaders promote and encourage a healthy and happy working culture to keep staff motivated during working hours..
    Refused Car Finance MD Craig Rutherford

    Real business story

    Empower your staff with motivating career paths

    Few workers want to be confined to one role for the whole of their careers, so the ability to progress within a company is key if an employer wants to both attract new recruits and keep long-standing members of staff..

    The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

    What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

    Select a topic

    Digital

    How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments?

    Leadership & Strategy

    How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

    People & Team

    How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I run a better appraisals process? How should I performance manage my staff? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover?

    Planning

    How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business?

    Sales & Growth

    How can we develop new products and services? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I benchmark my business against competitors?
    All