Nonprofit administrators nationwide rang in the New Year last month vowing to make good on a variety of resolutions designed to tackle the difficult issues they face in their day-to-day operations.

For those executive directors confronted by inappropriate employee behaviors—whether from department heads or frontline staff—the time to deal with annoying habits is now, said Dr. Rhonda Savage, an internationally acclaimed speaker and CEO at Miles and Associates, a performance management and consulting firm.

An administrator that does not address poor behaviors immediately takes the risk of two things happening, she said. “Other employees may start to act like the person with the bad behaviors, and the [administrator] may lose the respect of the other employees.”

Addressing such issues is especially important because, “Everyone needs to be on the same page and held to the same level of accountability. If not, profitability can go down, and that hurts the entire organization,” Savage said.

Poor employee behaviors come in an assortment of packages, Savage said, such as:

• Overusing cell phones. Some employees cannot break away from their phones, choosing to keep them on their desks or in their pockets. Savage said recent research indicates that texting and cell phone use can be likened to gambling, because the behavior becomes all consuming. “Over the course of a week, research has shown that an employee can lose up to eight hours of work time, because it’s not just about answering the phone, but the break in concentration to answer it and then getting back to the task,” the CEO said.
• Being unappreciative of the employer. Unhappy employees may not speak as well of their employers and this can lead to gossip. Savage said administrators need to “dial up the praise,” for employees, and that “employers should praise and appreciate their employees in a specific, timely and genuine manner.” And in some instances, nonprofit employees do not make as much money as their for-profit counterparts, which can lead to frustration. “Break down the hourly salary and their benefits so they see what they are earning per hour based on their benefits,” the speaker said.
• Wasting time. Some employees spend too much time on social media sites, such as Facebook, or surfing for their own business or pleasure, said Savage, and employees have been known to come to work and shop, bank online, or update their resumes at their workstations.
• Being late to work. Some employees repeatedly arrive after their scheduled time and, once they are there, are more focused on themselves, not their tasks, the speaker said.

Fortunately, there are specific steps managers can take to deal with problem employees and their poor behaviors, but Savage said the biggest change may need to take place at the administrator’s office door.

“I believe that when morale goes up, productivity goes up as well. The same happens with praise and appreciation. When we put the spotlight on what people are doing well instead of a magnifying glass on what they are doing wrong, they perform differently,” the CEO said. “And it’s not something you can do every once in a while; [you] have to work at it constantly.”

Other suggestions Savage made for employers include:

• Daily coaching. “The employee needs to know what they should be doing every day,” she said. “Any praise should be done publicly, but any coaching, feedback or criticism should be done privately.” Savage admits it may be hard for an administrator to find the time to coach daily, but a poor-performing employee needs direction.
• Create an employee policy manual and require each employee sign it. Employees may not agree with the policies, Savage said, but that isn’t the purpose. “The manual should be used to clarify employer expectations and explain what employees need to be doing during work time,” she said. Make sure that all employees—including upper management—are held to the same standards.
• Train employees. “The major concern that I see for most nonprofit and for-profit organizations is finding the time to train, so that employees are comfortable with whatever their job function is,” the CEO said. If employees are not trained, employers cannot hold them accountable to expectations.

Finally, Savage said employers should ask themselves two questions:

1. Is what is happening in the best interest of the nonprofit to serve our mission?
2. Is what is happening in the best interest of the nonprofit as a business?

“If the answer is ‘no’ to either question or both,” she said, “then the employee’s behavior has to change.”

For more information

Dr. Rhonda Savage is an internationally acclaimed speaker and is CEO of Miles and Associates, a practice management and consulting firm. She is a noted motivational speaker on leadership, women’s issues and communications. To contact Dr. Savage, or to learn more ways to address annoying employee habits, go to www.milesand
associates.net.