Getting Employees to Change Their Behaviors

One significant question supervisors and human resource department managers grapple with is: why don’t employees change their behavior? To consciously change behavior, people first need to perceive (or see)
the need for change. Consider they may not see their behavior and a certain situation the way others do. In addition, they need to imagine they’ll derive some benefit from the change because change is hard. Still, the change in perception, or beliefs and attitudes, is essential. The shift will likely create a generalized change in behavior – one that ripples through different situations.

The Role Of Performance Reviews

One of the most common methods used to assess and remediate employee behavior is the staff evaluation or performance review. Once or twice a year employers invest lots of time and money in the process. But, does it really pay off? Is critiquing the performance and ranking enough? If so, why don’t employees change their behavior?

The Downside of Performance Evaluations

One of the key problems is that the evaluation design, implementation, and review process don’t necessarily align with the intended objectives. Or,  it may be that many contradictory objectives muddle the process and outcomes. For example, if the process aims to zoom in on problem behaviors as well as competitively rank employees, both managers and subordinates have incentives to hold back, strategize, and/or manipulate their input and the calibration of the results.

Many employees are open to and even interested in, feedback. They want to professionally grow and advance. They’re willing to make adjustments, particularly if they don’t see the logic in the reviewers’ comments and the benefit of change (see my blog post on Giving Staff Feedback: What I Learned From Fostering Rescue Puppies).

Oftentimes, what seems to be inflexibility and a difficult interaction with an employee is simply a difference in perception and/or perspective. But, it’s not this difference is inherently difficult and unmanageable. Instead, it suggests that miscommunication and disconnection will be likely outcomes.

Case Study of Why Employees Don’t Change Their Behavior

Cynthia was the most competent team member and frequently gave younger staff members her time providing guidance and informal reviews of their work. However, her manager felt disappointed and exasperated with what appeared to be Cynthia’s pushback each time he gave her additional responsibilities in an effort to groom her for a promotion.

Unfortunately, Cynthia believed his task delegation implied that he was a lazy manager. Furthermore, she thought his lack of explicit appreciation of all the additional time she spent supporting junior staff was indicative of a male chauvinist attitude. In other words, she, as a woman, was just naturally nurturing rather than a talented mentor.

As a result, over time, this misunderstanding led to a series of inconsistent feedback. Cynthia heard that she was talented and hard-working, but should take on even more of her manager’s tasks and, in so doing, exhibit more leadership skills.

Her manager received feedback that he was unfair and delegated too much of his responsibilities to his staff. Neither person could properly align the feedback they received with their perception of reality.

This type of circular erosion of communication and trust is not uncommon in the workplace. It starts with an innocent difference in perception and ends with the manager and the subordinate cultivating invalid and destructive perspectives about their relationship and the other’s behaviors and performance. Ultimately, the firm may lose one or both of these valuable employees.

What’s the Takeaway?

If you really want to see behavior change, you may need to help your staff – managers and their subordinates alike – open their perceptions, shift their perspectives, and identify effective ways to integrate the shift into workplace relationships and communication.

Coaching is an excellent way to do this. An external coach can create an objective, supportive, and constructive environment where an employee has a chance to honestly self-reflect and assess a particular experience, broaden their perception, safely step out of their comfort zone, gain new interpersonal skills, and embrace change. Internal coaches or managers are not well placed to coach because of the difficulty in creating this atmosphere for the sessions (see my blog post Why Bosses Shouldn’t Coach).

For More Information On Why Don’t Employees Change Their Behavior And What To Do About It, See:

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Updated: October 1, 2021