If you’re a business owner you probably work really hard to train and develop your employees. Current figures suggest that over 50% of employees at most companies are disengaged and only do the necessary work to skate by. This is a particularly troublesome figure for small companies. If you only have 10 employees, can you really afford for 5 of them to be dead weight?
For the most part, we can use good leadership and communication to re-engage these employees. Many people just need the right guidance and reward systems in place and they start to shine. But sadly, we must accept that a small number of employees will never make an improvement. These people are the so-called dead weight of your business. But how do you recognize them so you can replace them?
Not Taking Feedback
One of the clearest signs of an employee who is dead weight is that they never take feedback well. Maybe they get defensive and pass the blame every time. Or perhaps they simply just nod along and then go back to doing the same things. They might even get angry and offended about any criticism. Even the best employee has a bad day were they react badly to feedback. But if it becomes a consistent thing then it might be time to accept that they are not engageable.
Negatively Affect Company Culture
Does your company feel like it can get a bit toxic sometimes? Often if a company has a negative atmosphere it can often trace that back to a few employees, or even one. Does someone continually cause personal problems with other employees? Are they gossiping or even openly bringing others down? Do they make life difficult for the rest of your team? Don’t sacrifice your good people to support a negative element. Recognize dead weight when you see it.
There are plenty of other elements that reveal dead weight in your team. As a business owner, it’s your goal to make sure that you’re always supporting your people. But make sure that you’re not wasting your efforts on people who don’t want help.
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