6 Ways to Deal with Team Members Who Don’t Want to Work
When you have team members who don’t want to work in your team it is generally frustrating, annoying, even painful – in fact it is all round bad news for everyone in the team and definitely for you.
The pressure on you – the manager – to fix the problem quickly will keep rising. Other team members will start commenting, your boss will start commenting and it goes downhill from there.
You want to change the attitude of team members who don’t want to work, as quickly as possible, preferably before everyone starts venting their frustrations. I am going to take you through 6 ways to do this depending on the situation you find yourself in.
The most important thing for you to do is take effective action to reduce the impact of those team members who don’t want to work.
Written by Jess Coles – 9 Minute Read
6 Ways to Deal with Team Members Who Don’t Want to Work:
- Work out What Went Wrong
- Make Sure They Know What is Expected of Them
- Give them confidence to Share Their Problems
- Spell out what is in it for them
- Help them Develop the Skills to do their Job Well
- Spot Those Unwilling to Work & Take Action quickly
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Work out What Went Wrong – the first step to deal with employees who don’t want to work
Almost all people want to do a good job at work. They don’t want to let their team members down and they don’t want to be bottom of the pack – socially or professionally.
So when handling a team member who doesn’t want to work, it makes absolute sense to find out what is causing the lazy work attitude. Most of the time there are reasons for the drop off in work ethic and these reasons can be fixed. Ask the individual who you are having problems with and try to use active listening to let them speak. Find out what has happened to change their attitude.
Be mindful, that it could be you or something you have said or done. Think through all the possible actions you have taken – which impact the person who doesn’t want to work – to see if you can figure out possible causes. This will make your questions more relevant when you talk to the person.
If the individual is not happy to talk to you or gives you bland answers which tell you very little, you could be the problem and you should try a different approach.
Ask one of the other team members you trust -and who trusts you – to try to get the answers you need and do specifically ask them to find out if you – the manager – is the cause the individual’s work ethic problem. As a last resort, you could ask a member of HR to speak to the individual to find out what the issue is.
Once you have a better idea of what is causing the team member to not want to work, you will have a much better chance of fixing the issue quickly.
The second way to handle team members who don’t want to work: make sure they know what is expected of them
I have come across this a number of times, particularly when turning around team performance; that employees don’t know what is expected of them. The have their ideas of what they should be doing and their manager a set of expectations and the gap between them is significant.
Setting clear expectations at work helps everyone.
Spend time working out exactly what you expect of each team member – taking into account their strengths and capabilities. Then be really clear in communicating your expectations of what you think they should be delivering. Ask their input into these expectations and negotiate as necessary.
The aim is to come up with a set of expectations that both you and the team member accept. Then put this in writing to the individual so you both have a written reference document. Work out how you are going to measure progress or ask the individual to work out this step.
With a team member who doesn’t want to work, getting clear expectations will usually produce one of two general outcomes. The first is they are delighted to know what is expected and they start delivering against these expectations on their own or with your help. The second is they are unwilling to meet these expectations, or they are unable to meet these expectations and you will need to deal with the employee’s underperformance.
With expectations clearly set, you are in a good position for either outcome and can take the appropriate next steps.
Give them confidence to share their problems – the third way to deal with team members who don’t want to work
It can be pretty scary for team members to share their problems with their manager. The employees are worried about the consequences of doing so – will their manager think less of them, cut them out of the interesting projects or activities, put them down, criticise them and so on.
We have to deal with problems all the time in life. Sometimes these problems significantly impact us, or we are not able to overcome them without help from others.
A helping hand, giving the person extra space, reducing their workload, just listening to them and being empathetic can all make a huge difference to a person with say problems in their personal life that are impacting their attitude and performance at work. Giving support in their moment of need can pay back in increased motivation, loyalty and performance later on.
So show support and empathy and emphasise that you their to support them, to help them do the best job that they can. Your actions rather than your words will build trust. With trust, you will be much more likely to find out what their problems are and can then help them fix them.
Finding out about work related problems may be harder than personal life ones. Again, approach in the same way I have just outlined. If you don’t know what the problems are, your options to help are limited.
If the team member doesn’t share their problems with you, ask other team members and possibly HR to speak to them as we discussed in step 1.
The fourth way to deal with employees who don’t want to work: Spell Out What is In It For Them
Motivating employees is not always easy and everyone has different motivators. Common motivators include:
- Getting Praise and recognition
- Getting Challenge and learning opportunities
- More Money through bonuses, etc
- Getting greater responsibilities
- Increasing Social and professional status
- Getting promoted which incorporates many of the previous points
And there are others.
Some employees need what is in it for them spelt out. Find out what their motivators are. Give them a path to achieving what they want. Help them with how to achieve each stage and the final goal. And of course align this path with what you need them to do, with what the team and business needs too.
In many cases this can help in handling lazy team members who don’t want to work or who are drifting through their days at work.
Help them develop the skills to do their job – the fifth way to handle team members who don’t want to work
The most common reason team members don’t have the skills to do their job – I have come across – is when the business is growing, and team members have not grown their skills with the growing requirements of their role.
Recruitment issues, changing business requirements or expectations and pressures put upon employees which they just can’t deliver against are other reasons for this situation to occur. And there are plenty of other reasons too.
Once you have worked out that the person doesn’t have the skills to do their job well, a couple of broad options to consider are:
- Train, mentor and coach individuals that have aptitude and will to learn quickly, so you get their skill levels up to the level required
- Move the individual into a more appropriate role within the business that plays to their strengths and skill level
- Move the individual out of the business – if they have little interest in learning, a poor attitude or other performance issues.
Which route or combination of routes you take, will depend very much on the situation, the company culture and approach – and of course the individual.
Increasing the team member’s skill level is usually the best option for everyone concerned. It may not always be practical or sensible to do this.
Spot Those Unwilling to Work & Take Action quickly – the final way to deal with employees who don’t want to work
You will come across employees who are simply not interested in really working, doing a good job or who have a strong sense of entitlement. Or even worse, they might be toxic employees or employees that are difficult to work with for various reasons.
You can try some or all the ways I have already outlined. There will be occasions when, whatever you try, the team member will not improve their approach to work and you will have to decide if you still want this person on your team.
A negative employee, or a person who is obviously not pulling their weight can be very demotivational for the team. Take action if you find yourself in this situation.
I would recommend putting the team member who doesn’t want to work onto a personal performance plan quickly. This plan sets out expectations, milestones, goals and measurement methods for the various aspects of their job in a formal way. This gives them a chance to improve, makes it clear that you are not going to let the continued behaviour, approach and attitude slide. A Personal Performance Plan also lays the groundwork for disciplinary action and the potential removal of the employee for poor performance.
You can also take a more direct approach and remove the individual. Always check the employment laws before taking these steps and comply with them.
Don’t leave a difficult individual who doesn’t want to work in your team.
In summary
There are six ways to deal with team members who don’t want to work:
- Work out What When Wrong
- Make Sure They Know What is Expected Them
- Give them confidence to Share Their Problems
- Spell out what is in it for them
- Help them Develop the Skills to do their Job Well
- Spot Those Unwilling to Work & Take Action quickly
Don’t procrastinate or take no action. This is the worst approach of all. Having difficult conversations is not easy for anyone – even the most experienced of managers – yet they are conversations you must have to do a good job as a manager and keep the majority of your team happy and productive.
Good luck in the actions you take to handle team members who don’t want to work.
I‘ve had to manage a number of team members who didn’t want to work and in most cases turned this around – to my benefit and the team members.
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