A toxic workplace is no fun for anyone. It contributes to higher turnover, increased expense, inefficiency, low morale and often, a damaged reputation. To do nothing only exacerbates the problem and telegraphs to employees that management either doesn’t care or simply isn’t minding the store.
Dishonest people don’t just wake up one day and suddenly decide to become thieves. Most of them were already bent and had questionable ethics before they were hired.
The intent of the old adage ‘the customer is always right’ is that one should always keep the customer’s needs in mind and do everything one can to make them happy.
Some individuals would like to change jobs, or train for better ones, but can’t afford the time or expense of additional training or education while simultaneously supporting their families. They feel trapped, frustrated and maybe a little resentful too. Is it any wonder that people are jumping ship for a few dollars more, even if it doesn’t advance their actual careers?
Employer concerns about the overall lack of applicants, the lack of suitable and qualified applicants and complaints about high turnover have increased steadily over the past 5 years. It’s a conversation that I now have with clients on a weekly basis, and it’s occurring continent-wide, and across all industries.
Three months ago, Emeritus, a global online education company, published its list of growing workplace trends to watch for in 2022. All businesses are contending with changes brought about by the pandemic and everything is in flux all around us. Many of the coming changes are unavoidable but they can be made more manageable.
It’s a challenging time for many businesses and it’s particularly problematic for those who are hiring because applicants can now afford to be pickier about which offers they accept.
North American businesses lose millions of dollars a year due to various kinds of theft. Unfortunately, it’s often their own employees who are doing most of the stealing, and most employers don’t even know it.
Soft skills used to be considered nice-to-haves but now, they’re critical must-haves. They’re the ‘grease’ that facilitates interpersonal interactions and are what people with hard skills use to succeed. Soft skills are things like critical thinking, flexibility, adaptability, team working, problem solving, time management, communication, attention to detail, dependability, emotional intelligence and etc. They are equally as, if not more important than, hard skills.
If ever there was a time to be talking about character and ethics then it’s now in the wake of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. That event, and the entirety of Trump’s presidency, have illustrated why integrity and character are more than just nice-to-have’s. Trustworthiness is critical to every level of human interaction whether be it in marriage, in business dealings or when you loan the family car to your teenager.