David Grindle: Want to nip bad behaviour in the bud? Plant the right seeds to grow your workplace culture

Don’t be afraid to empower staff, it’s their workplace as well and usually they want the same things that management wants. Photo / 123rf

OPINION

It seems fairly self-evident that poor behaviour from staff members can have detrimental effects on workplace culture and productivity.

In our line of work, we get a lot of queries from managers looking to try to address this behaviour after it has occurred.

However, to truly combat subpar workplace behaviour, management needs to first look inward, and try to capture the essence of their particular workplace culture and environment. If you haven’t determined what culture and environment you want, it’s difficult to say with any certainty what constitutes poor behaviour.

Reflecting on how you want your workplace to be is a powerful tactic, but involving your staff in identifying what constitutes the workplace culture and environment is a tangible step towards implementing that vision.

Don’t be afraid to empower staff, it’s their workplace as well and, usually, they want the same things that management wants — respect, politeness, profitability and a supportive, open and communicative workplace. Often the attributes of a good workplace that are non-tangible are recorded as workplace values and those are the things that underpin decision-making, behaviours and the way people interact. Again, if staff are involved in creating the values they are much more likely to live them.

Once values have been established, it’s much easier to drill down into behaviours and create codes of conduct. For example, values concerning tāngata i te tuatahi, or putting people first, would be manifested in a workplace behaviour or code of conduct policy. Values about whakawhitiwhiti kōrero, or communication, could be manifested in an email and communications policy.

Together, a values statement and workplace policies create a set of clear expectations; a framework within which the workplace culture and environment can grow in the right direction. The framework provides guidance to employees and in those circumstances it can come as no surprise when an employee is held to account for unacceptable behaviour.

Having worked collaboratively to establish a workplace culture, values and policies, it is imperative those documents do not become stagnant and are incorporated into the fabric of the organisation. Providing regular opportunities to interact, give feedback and coaching are all part of fostering a positive work environment.

Employers who adopt this strategy and model the behaviours they desire are less likely to require disciplinary processes.

It seems jingoistic and part of the HR rhetoric, but if an organisation focuses on its attributes, its people, and modelling desired behaviour, it is far more likely that people within the organisation will engage in a way that will allow them, the organisation and their colleagues to flourish.

David Grindle is the director in charge of the employment law team at WRMK Lawyers. He has practised in this area of the law for 17 years