Managing Employee Conflict

In many if not most HME companies, disputes between employees or between employees and management are inevitable. This tends to happen more frequently in organizations that lack accountability measures and where managers are not trained. In addition, it is noticeably more pronounced when the industry is in a state of turmoil or flux, such as HME/DME is today. Learning how to work with difficult employees requires learning how to avoid conflict by using proactive measures, learning how to “manage up” and learning how to have difficult conversations.

Counseling Approaches

Many organizations have at least one employee who is difficult to work with and who has a negative impact on the morale of staff and management alike. Is there a person like that at your company? If so, the question is, what can be done about their behavior, and what is the best way to deal with the situation quickly and proactively?

If the person is a good worker but does not work well with others, one option is to move the person away from the rest of the staff and have them work on solo projects or assignments that do not require much input from other employees. By counseling the employee and setting clear and objective goals, you may be able to avoid future conflicts. This, however, may not be feasible and may only prove to be a temporary fix.

Even when the person performs well, if he/she continues to create conflict among other staff, it is best to work with HR or your employment lawyer to break down the conflict. Continually communicate the need to work efficiently without creating conflict. Even if this person is productive, if he/she wreaks havoc on the office it can be costly to the entire company and might even cause staff to quit. More employees resign over personnel issues than wage issues. Ultimately, once you exhaust all efforts to counsel this person, if you have worked with them repeatedly and the negative behavior persists—especially after they agree to change—you may be left with no alternative but to release them from their duties.

The need to deal with these issues quickly becomes clear when polling seminar audiences. Whenever I ask about difficult employees, the audience typically looks down or smirks and exudes an atmosphere of tension and pressure. In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins is spot-on in his description of the costs of retaining difficult staff: “Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people.”

So, when confronted with a difficult employee, what can we do to help change their attitude or improve the situation? How can we help them grow so that both the employee and company benefit? Here are a few suggestions:

Managing up—One of the key ingredients to running a successful department is to “manage up.” In a 2008 Healthcare Registration article on culture shift in the workplace, Quint Studer states, “There are two types of corporate cultures: those divided by blame and finger-pointing, and those united by teamwork and shared responsibility.” Avoid promoting a “we/they” mentality by criticizing the company, and instead praise an employee who does good work. For example, if someone asks for a raise, instead of saying, “I know you work hard, but this place does not like to give raises, even if you deserve it,” tell the employee that he or she does a good job and praise him/her in front of others. You might say, “You are in for a real treat if you get to work with Susie. She’s a top performer at our company. She really goes the extra mile and always follows up with our customers within 24-48 hours of equipment setup.”

To emphasize this approach and to teach your leaders how to manage up, role-play using key words. Help them abandon the notion of bashing the company in favor of boosting the ego of a high performing employee. Send notes to the boss praising an exemplary employee (e.g., “I just wanted you to know that Susie connected with 100 percent of her customers within 24 hours of CPAP setup”) and meet with staff regularly. Create a forum for open communication and opportunities to manage up. This will inevitably help keep employees from focusing on the negative. Rather, they should become more productive, as the feeling of success breeds success. A difficult employee will not thrive in this environment because a more collaborative and united workforce does not typically work well with those who foster negative behavior. In fact, the positive reinforcement becomes contagious as it spreads throughout the organization.

Criticism—Human nature tells us that nobody will have nice things to say all the time. Rather, some will want to voice criticisms and point out the shortcomings of the company. While their points may sometimes be valid, work to make these discussions productive rather than allowing meetings to turn into company wallop sessions. Morale is at stake and you can ill afford to allow this. Instead, for every critique voiced, staff should be expected to offer a possible solution. Ideas for operational improvement should be encouraged, but complaints on their own will not suffice.

Minutiae—Another common hurdle that can easily be removed is the practice of dwelling on minutiae. Every staff member wants to feel important, some more than others. To get attention, certain people will turn even the smallest problem into a major issue. So how do you tell an employee that their perceived problem does not deserve a response because the matter is not important enough to expend time and energy on fixing it? As with the managing up approach, use key words to make the employee feel important, then ask questions to elicit the response you want.

For example, let’s say John in the billing department thinks that a particular insurance company is difficult to work with because they do not want to authorize and pay for CPAP supplies. Instead, he insists, the insurer simply wants to pay the 10 months’ rental for the machine and call it quits. In John’s opinion, the insurance company “makes you jump through hoops just to get paid and then they only pay for 10 months. This is way too time consuming and results in lots of extra effort. In fact, it is causing staff to delay other collection efforts to deal with this payer.”

When you delve a little more deeply, you learn that only four claims have been submitted to that insurance plan over the last year. Thank John for his candid approach and ask him how much time is spent per claim submission. If he says that it takes about 30-45 minutes per claim, or two to three hours per year maximum, ask him what he, as an experienced leader in the billing department, thinks should be done. Also ask if there are other payers that drive more revenue and are billed more frequently with which similar issues arise with any frequency. Help him to realize that this is a minor issue in comparison to the more important payers with which your company does business. If he doesn’t come to this realization on his own, tell him that he should first work on the major payer problems, and then once they are resolved he can spend time (if financially warranted) on the smaller matters.

Preventing Problems

Strive to nip employee conflicts in the bud because, according to a lawyer who deals with employee conflict resolution, “the quicker you deal with employee conflict, the better off you are. Don’t let it fester. Rather, encourage staff to bring issues forward to resolve matters as fast as possible.” This could mean the difference between having valuable staff quit because of conflicts with a difficult employee or resolving a problem to the benefit of the entire organization.

As I mentioned before, many managers are not taught management skills. They are simply promoted because they are in the right place at the right time. Teach managers that open communication, as described below, is the key to success, even if their former “buddies” are angry or jealous of the promotion. After all, a manager’s first duty is to keep the company’s best interest as their chief objective.

Rounding—When building a culture of open communication, “rounding” with staff regularly (daily, if possible) helps derail possible misunderstandings and gives staff a feeling of importance as well as an opportunity to discuss their progress and/or needs. Ask employees if they have all the tools they need to do their job. Ask if you, as their leader, are doing your job well or if there is something you need to adjust. Ask if there is someone who deserves to be recognized and praise that person if warranted. According to Quint Studer, “Rounding is a lot like exercise … You must make it part of your routine. But proactive leadership is far more effective than reactive leadership. It allows you to consciously and deliberately build the kind of culture in which people feel a sense of purpose, a sense that their work is worthwhile, a sense that they’re truly making a difference.”

Difficult Conversations

Despite taking preventative measures, you may still encounter employee conflicts that require difficult conversations. These should be handled with finesse and care. Have the conversation in private so as not to embarrass the employee. If the issue is between two employees, have them meet first to determine if they can resolve the issue on their own. If not, meet with each one separately and then meet with them together to resolve the matter. Your goal is to keep everyone focused on solving the problem and not allow them to get distracted by personal differences or intra-office politics. Engage your HR staff and/or counsel if the matter could become a legal dispute.

According to Richard Davis, president of McClain Group, LLC, a human resource consulting and executive recruiting firm, “When counseling an employee, explain what the expectation is and what each employee can do to meet the expectation. Make clear that all staff must work together in a harmonious way for a common goal, for the success of the company.” Davis goes on to say that “trying to get along is not an option. You must put your personal feelings aside to meet goals and expectations. Further action will have to be pursued if you can’t meet those expectations.” In some cases, the end result is termination.

If the issue is a single employee matter, meet with the person (again, in private). Describe the behavior and its impact on the other employees in the company. Give specific examples, such as, “I am not able to train other employees when you interrupt my training to explain your way of doing things.” Tell them what you want to change: “If you have a suggestion, bring it to my attention when I’m not in the middle of a training session.” Make sure the employee agrees to alter the behavior and that they are committed to this change. If, despite the counseling, the behavior persists, explain that your company’s standards of performance create expectations and this is one that must be met. As mentioned above, this is not optional.

Conflict resolution—If the behavior persists, make this final effort in a professional and straightforward manner: Describe what you have observed, explain how it impacts you and those around you and discuss what needs to be done to rectify it. Specifically state the consequences if the behavior continues. Make sure the employee acknowledges an understanding of this consequence. Terminate as appropriate if the employee doesn’t meet expectations within a specified and agreed upon timeframe.

As we all know, difficult conversations can be uncomfortable, but with experience and practice they can also be successful. The key is to prevent this type of conversation to the extent possible by continually communicating with staff.

Proactive measures such as managing up and rounding with employees are two great ways to prevent employee conflict. As a leader, remain open. Honest communication is embraced by most employees if executed properly, no matter how difficult it may be. Improved productivity results when objective goals are established and progress is noted routinely. In the end, preventing the conflict is the best-case scenario. It allows you to focus attention on the business and not on minutiae, especially in times of turmoil. Along the way, you are modeling the behavior you want to see in your next leader.

Resolution Raises Spirits

As conflicts are resolved, improved workplace behaviors can include:

• More relaxed and positive interactions
• Increased collaboration on projects and teamwork with job responsibilities
• More respectful language between co-workers and between employees and management
• Less gossip and negative chatter
• Goals being met
• Openness to solving issues proactively

Questions to Ask

When beginning the conflict resolution process, consider asking the employees involved the following questions:

• What would you like to see happen?
• What does that look like for you?
• What would it take for us to be able to move forward?
• How do we get there?
• Are you willing to share the impact this situation had on you?
• Are you willing to hear my perspective?
• What ideas do you have that would meet both our needs?
• Can you tell me more about that?
• What about this situation is most troubling to you?
• What’s most important to you?