How to Help Discouraged Employees

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1Evaluating Your Employees' Performance and Interactions

2Communicating with the Employee

3Preventing Employees from Becoming Disgruntled

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Part of being an effective team leader or manager is being willing and able to help employees that are disgruntled or discouraged about their jobs. Central to this goal is being able to recognize when employees are discouraged, define the problem, and help them work it through. Part of the challenge of being a manager is to help all of your employees reach their full potential. However, this is a little more difficult than it might seem. Fortunately, though, with a little bit of effort, you’ll be able to identify and then help discouraged employees.

Steps

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Evaluating Your Employees' Performance and Interactions

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   Review your employees' performance evaluations and similar metrics. One of the first steps in evaluating disgruntled employees is to review their performance. By reviewing their performance, you’ll be able to get an idea of how successful (and well-adjusted) they are in your organization.

   • Pull employee performance evaluations to see how you (or other supervisors) have evaluated them in the past.
   • Look at any data that indicates how well an employee is performing their job.
   • Watch for signs that other employees aren't handling their workload, and instead they're picking on the unhappy employees or they aren't including the employees in question in team-building or planning exercises.
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   Recognize the signs of employee distress. To help discouraged employees, you will need to know how to tell when they're unhappy. Look for employees that seem overwhelmed, complain about jobs or deadlines, or are reclusive and don't interact with fellow staff. Other signs include anger, tardiness, absences, poor production, and issues with other employees. These could all be signs that they're unhappy at work. To do this, make sure to:

   • Pay attention to your employees’ demeanor. Watching their demeanor will give you a great idea of whether or not they are happy or disgruntled.
   • Make sure to continually monitor your employees’ efficiency. Very often, efficient employees are well-adjusted and happy.
   • Talk to all of your employees weekly. By staying in touch with your employees on a weekly basis, you’ll know their status, efficiency, and whether or not they are happy and well-adjusted in your organization.
   • Spend a little time observing how the employees in question behave around other employees. In addition, try to get a feeling for how other employees interact with and treat the employees in question. Observing such interactions will give you a lot more information about the employees' performance and their problems.
   • Get an idea of whether other employees are taking on extra work because the employees in question do not manage their work effectively.
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   Talk to employees' supervisors. After reviewing their performance evaluations, you need to talk to their supervisors to gather more information. By talking to supervisors, you’ll discover a variety of things about their attitude and behavior at work. Make sure to limit this information to members of the management team. Never discuss this information with the employee’s peers.

   • Schedule a meeting with supervisors. Ask them what they think is going on with any disgruntled employees.
   • Try to find out how the disgruntled employees interact with other workers. Ask questions that will provide objective information about the employee. For example, you could ask about how often the employee is late to work, how many times they have missed a deadline, etc.
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Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Communicating with the Employee

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   Talk with them privately. After you’ve evaluated disgruntled employees, you need to talk with them personally. By talking to them, you’ll be able to share your concerns and hear their side of the story.

   • Set up a meeting with them where you can talk in solitude. If appropriate, consider setting up a meeting outside of work.
   • Explain what you've observed and why you've asked to meet with them.
   • Don't ask them if they're unhappy in front of their fellow employees, because this will embarrass them and make them reluctant to talk.
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   Let employees talk freely. An important part of solving employee dissatisfaction is to allow your employee to talk openly to you without fear of reprimand. Allowing them to talk freely will provide you with a lot of information you might otherwise not have.

   • Encourage them to speak openly and plainly about the problem. It's important for the employees to be able to talk to you about the problem, even if it involves another employee, a client, or even you.
   • Keep in mind that you might hear information you dislike or disagree with. However, it is important not to judge, but be objective.
   • Do not rebuke an employee for talking freely if you’ve told them to do so.
   • Communicate to employees that you are listening to their concerns with an open mind.
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   Ask your employees what would make them happier at work. While your job is not to give into your employee’s demands or whims, you should ask them what would make them a more satisfied employee. Doing this may provide you with information that will not just help the employees, but your organization as a whole.

   • Ask your employees if there are any specific, and realistic, changes that you or your organization can do to make them happier.
   • Let your employees know that you are not going to necessarily meet any requests they make.
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   Encourage your employees. One of the healthiest ways to communicate with disgruntled employees is to encourage them. By encouraging your employees, you’ll help to promote a positive work environment.

   • Tell the discouraged employees about a few areas where you've noticed they've excelled or exceeded your expectations.
   • Let your employees know that they are a valued members of your team.
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Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Preventing Employees from Becoming Disgruntled

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   Provide support services. By providing support services to your employees, you can increase their happiness and help them be more satisfied members of your team. Support services can include psychological, social, medical, or other services. Consider:

   • Providing superior compensation to what you currently offer.
   • Providing your employees with health insurance that covers mental health.
   • Allowing employees personal leave, time off, or adequate vacation.
   • Appointing a manager or human resource officer whose job it is to hear workplace grievances and to deal with problems before they get out of control.
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   Try to accommodate your employees’ wishes if possible. Sometimes employees will make requests that may help to prevent them from becoming disgruntled. If you can accommodate an employee’s wishes without compromising policies or profits of the company, then you may want to consider it.

   • Make sure that you are honest with your employees about what types of accommodations are possible and what types are not.
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   Give employees manageable tasks. You should periodically review your employees’ daily workload in order to make sure that their responsibilities are manageable. By making sure that your employees have manageable tasks, you’ll take an important step in preventing your workforce from becoming disgruntled.

   • Make sure some employees are not carrying the responsibilities of other employees. If they are, this could cause them to become unhappy.
   • Make sure that your employees’ daily obligations are not unreasonable or outside the scope of what is possible for them to complete.
   • Consider increasing compensation if demands on the employee have increased and it is within the budget to do so.
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   Make sure every employee is appreciated. Showing appreciation for employees is another good way to prevent them from becoming disgruntled.

   • Establish a mentor program for new or junior employees. Team them with more established employees that they can look to for guidance.
   • Reward all employees when they meet a goal as a team.
   • Always be positive to employees and encourage them to be positive to each other.
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   Promote and transfer intra-organization. If you think the employee will benefit, excel, or contribute to the organization in a different position, offer one to them. In the end, your employee may just be dissatisfied or feel unchallenged by their job.

   • If you've determined the employee has a lot more potential and could improve the organization, promote them. Provide additional training for other positions within the company.
   • If you think the employee is in the wrong division or department, transfer them to one in which they could excel.
   • Always ask the employee their opinion before transferring or promoting them.
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