How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? | Be The Business | A more productive economy driven by inspired business leadership

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

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

Action plan

Develop the right approach to health and wellbeing

Effort: High

Impact : High

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

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

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?

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.

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

Leadership & Strategy

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

People & Team

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

Planning

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

Sales & Growth

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

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