Even the best organisations periodically make mistakes in dealing with people. They treat people like children and then ask why people fail so frequently to live up to their expectations.

Managers apply different rules to different employees and wonder why workplace negativity is so high.

People work hard and infrequently receive positive feedback. At the same time, many organisations invest untold energy in actions that ensure employees are unhappy! One of the most important current trends in organisations is increasing employee involvement and input.

Organisations must find ways to use all the strengths of the people they employ. Or people will leave to find work in organisations that do.

According to recent research, the number of people in the labour force aged 25 to 34 is projected to decline within the next seven years.

To meet this challenge, work places are being encouraged to recruit new populations and non-traditional employees. And, it is also recommended that workplaces should retain valued employees at all costs.

High Five! The Magic of Working Together by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles talks about building powerfully effective teams. The book emphasises that "the essence of a team is the genuine understanding that none of us are as smart as all of us".

Teams allow people to achieve things far beyond our own individual ability. But teamwork also requires powerful motivation for people to put the good of the group ahead of their own self-interest.

How committed is your organisation in promoting this 'team spirit'? When proposing a new course of action, do you seriously consider the end result? How will the proposed action affect staff productivity, dedication and loyalty to the company?

Rather than discuss what you should be doing, let's take a brief look at situations that you should avoid.

¤ Add another level of hierarchy because people aren't doing what you want them to do. (More watchers get results!)

¤ Appraise and bonus the performance of individuals and complain that you cannot get your staff working as a team.

¤ Add inspectors and multiple audits because you don't trust people's work to meet standards.

¤ Fail to create standards and give people clear expectations so they know what they are supposed to do, and wonder why they fail.

¤ Create hierarchical, permission steps and other roadblocks that teach people quickly their ideas are subject to veto and wonder why no one has any suggestions for improvement. (Make people beg for money!)

¤ Ask people for their opinions, ideas and continuous improvement suggestions, and fail to implement their suggestions or empower them to do so. Better? Don't even provide feedback about whether the idea was considered.

¤ Make a decision and then ask people for their input as if their feedback mattered.

¤ Find a few people breaking rules and company policies and chide everybody at company meetings rather than dealing directly with the rule breakers. Better? Make everyone wonder 'who' the bad guy is.

¤ Make up new rules for everyone to follow as a means to address the failings of a few.

¤ Provide recognition in expected patterns so that what started as a great idea quickly becomes entitlement. (As an example, buy Friday lunch when production goals are met. Wait until people start asking you for the money if they cannot attend the lunch!)

¤ Treat people as if they are untrustworthy - watch them, track them, admonish them for every slight failing - because a few people are untrustworthy.

¤ Fail to address behaviour and actions of people that are inconsistent with stated and published organisational expectations and policies. (Better yet, let non-conformance go on until you are out of patience; then ambush the next offender with a disciplinary action!)

¤ When managers complain they cannot get to all of their reviews because they have too many directly reporting staff members, hire more supervisors to do reviews. (Fail to recognise that an hour per quarter per person invested in development is the manager's most important job.)

¤ Create policies for every contingency, allowing very little management latitude in addressing individual employee needs.

¤ Conversely, have so few policies that employees feel as if they reside in a free-for-all environment of favouritism and unfair treatment.

¤ Make every task a priority. People will soon believe there are no priorities. More importantly, they will never feel as if they have accomplished a complete task or goal.

¤ Schedule daily emergencies that prove to be false. This will ensure employees don't know what to do, or are, minimally, jaded about responding when you have a true customer emergency.

¤ Ask employees to change the way they are doing something without providing a picture of what you are attempting to accomplish with the change. Label them "resisters" and send them to change management training when they don't immediately hop on the train.

¤ Expect that people learn by doing everything perfectly the first time rather than recognising that learning occurs most frequently in failure.

¤ Letting a person fail when you had information, that he did not, which he might have used to make a different decision.

If you are guilty of one or any of the above, rest assured that you are failing to

¤ retain valued employees;

¤ develop empowered people working together to serve the best interests of the organisation; and

¤ create an environment in which each employee contributes all their talents and skills to the success of organisational goals!

CSB Employment Agency has been supporting the local business community with its services since 1987. For further information you can write to us at Vincenti Buildings, 14/19 Strait Street, Valletta VLT 08, or call 2122-5800 or 2124-6543, fax 2123-0520, e-mail: jobs@vacancycentre.com, or visit www.VacancyCentre.com.