Employee resistance can have serious after-effects on the productivity of the workplace and internal relations.
Sometimes you must look no further than yourself to see why employees do not respond the way you expect them to. Negative actions by employees can have serious after-effects on the productivity of the workplace.
- What is employee resistance?
- What are the signs of employee resistance?
- What causes employee resistance?
- How does employee resistance affect productivity?
- How to overcome employee resistance
- Employee resistance - Summary
What is employee resistance?
These are tactics used by employees to delay, bypass or ignore management actions to achieve long-term goals. This resistance will normally happen when leadership brings in changes that will need employees to change either their behaviour or input to adapt to new processes.
Being able to identify and deal with this type of employee behaviour will come through the leadership skills you have developed and the experience gained.
What are the signs of employee resistance?
Very popular signs that can go unnoticed if management is not alert will include some or all of these:
There are basically two types of changes which can be divided into technical change and social change.
- Increased absenteeism
- Unproductive by purposely under-performing
- Failed communication and initiator of gossip
- Non-participation in projects and common social activity
- No motivation to maintain own performance level
- The undermining of superiors' authority and other staff who seem to be more motivated and productive
What causes employee resistance?
There is only one reason why employees will resist and that is to make an effort to avoid changes brought into the workplace.There are basically two types of changes which can be divided into technical change and social change.
Technical Change
The technical change includes organizational, process or product changes that the employee feels are not favourable to the organization or the way they are used to working.
It might also be that the employees can see no benefit for themselves in the change. These employees have no interest in self-development and were probably disengaged long before the changes came.
Other employees are just content with what they have and are happy to maintain the status quo for the rest of their lives. New challenges bring new fears into their environment and they need coaching from leadership to show the benefits.
Social Change
Social change comes in the form of personal problems away from work, the appointment of new employees, management changes, or even something as small as working hour changes.
Any situation where the employees feel the freedom to act differently from what they are used to will cause resistance.
Any situation where the employees feel the freedom to act differently from what they are used to will cause resistance.
How does employee resistance affect productivity?
As productivity is the equation of input versus output it can be very damaging for the company.If not detected and stopped in the early stages it can cause the downfall of your organization. Productivity is affected by
- Losing revenue through poor performance
- Lowering of standards expected
- Poisoning of workforce morale
- Failure to implement new strategies successfully
- Loss of customers who will sense instability
As already stated it can sink your organization and the only way to prevent it is to constantly motivate employees to create a positive team who will be more receptive to change.
This is where positive communication plays a very important role.
A negative person will not succeed in a positive team.
How to overcome employee resistance
As a leader, it will be your task to eliminate or at least reduce the impact of negative employee behaviour on the productivity of the organization.
This is where your communication skills will play a major role as getting out of this type of situation will require both fundamentals of communication which are informing and listening.
- Identify Obstacles
- Communicate the importance and benefits
- Engage and get commitment
- Follow-up and feedback
Identify Obstacles
The first thing to do is to find out where the resistance comes from and what it is based upon. Without acknowledging that there might be some valid concerns your efforts will only increase resistance which in turn will become a long-term problem.
It is essential to identify if the obstacles are people, process, or management-based. Knowing the root of the resistance will guide you on how to handle it going forward.
If it is management based then it is important to get all your managers on board by providing them with enough positive communication that can be filtered down. Making sure that management can operate as a cohesive team to reach targets will reflect positivity toward the rest of the workforce.
Process-based obstacles can be removed through acknowledgement of concerns, reviewing processes, participation of concerned parties, and regular feedback on progress.
When it comes to obstacles created by people's actions you will be required to be firm in your communication but still keep it positive. Often it only requires a bit more information sharing and team involvement.
Communicate the importance and benefits
When you have employees who resist then the two most important things they will be interested in are why it is important and how can it benefit both the organization and the employee?
Benefits might not always be visible to the employees especially if the benefits are only obtained in the long run. Be confident that you are aware of the importance of change and make sure you can communicate it with positivity so the normal employee can have the same viewpoint.
Engage and get commitment
If you have communicated well with your employees you should have no problem getting them committed through engagement. Getting your team engaged in some form or another will help them take ownership of the benefits that will come from their actions.
Through engagement, you will get them committed to achieving the same goals that you as their leader are striving for. With an effective team, everybody becomes a winner when their leader is winning.
Follow-up and feedback
Following up and receiving feedback is very important to show the workforce that issues are taken seriously and are receiving attention which will lead to solutions. Employees will expect the same level of commitment from leadership as you are requesting from them.
In order for processes to continue in a positive manner, employees need to be informed continuously about changes and achievements so that the engagement process is validated through action.
Employee resistance - Summary
When your team is not fully cooperating with achieving your goals it will affect the overall productivity of the organization. By being alert you will identify the reasons quickly and put a plan of action in place to counteract any negativity.
Ensuring positive engagement takes place with your employees will develop a culture of commitment within your team which will avoid conflict of interest and dispel perceptions.
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