Strong relationships between your employees are crucial to a healthy workplace. According to Gallup, the more interconnected a work-group is, the better it performs – nobody wants to let their friends down in a toxic workplace.
On the other hand, a toxic work environment often results in disengaged employees. Since there’s no sense of dependence, workers don’t feel as bad when they slack off or do a poor job.
Signs of a Toxic Work Environment
A toxic work environment takes many forms. Luckily, there are numerous warning signs and a toxic workplace checklist that can help managers or HR identify toxicity before it festers out of control. Look out for:
- Strained interactions between staff
- Gossip or rumors
- Selfishness or little concern for others
- A sense of superiority
- Unwillingness to take responsibility
- Favoritism, bias, or cliques
Even if your office only shows one of these signs, take caution. Toxicity seeps deeper into a company the longer it’s left unchecked. Here are three surefire ways to nip toxic behavior in the bud:
1. Tighten your hiring process
If toxic workplace behaviors are slipping through the cracks, it’s possible that your hiring process is too forgiving. A lax hiring process is bound to admit some people that should’ve been kept out.
Look out for warning signs right off the bat – as early as the interview process. If a candidate complains a lot about a previous position, they probably wouldn’t hesitate to bad-mouth a co-worker. If they go on and on about their accomplishments, they might have a superiority issue. Throw in some leading questions during the interview to gauge for toxic traits.
A more subtle way to filter out negative people during the hiring process is to track candidate email habits. For instance, if someone consistently takes their time responding to emails – particularly urgent ones – they may not value others or their time.
Too busy to closely track emails? Many companies are turning to applicant tracking software (ATS) solutions to automate the more tedious aspects of recruitment. In this case, ATS could record the exact amount of time candidates take to respond to an email. Some ATS systems also track when a candidate clicks the links within your emails – a possible predictor of future engagement.
2. Establish trust with employees
Who suffers most from a toxic work environment? The employees. So an easy way to pinpoint any toxicity is to ask the staff directly about any workplace concerns.
If you haven’t established yourself as trustworthy, however, workers will hesitate to come to you. To ease them into it, a simple email reminder to employees saying they can come to you with any concerns will build a foundation of trust. After a while, you could start pulling in workers for monthly updates, then up the frequency. The end goal is to make your employees feel comfortable enough to communicate any workplace problems.
Without employees to rely on for an inside look at workplace culture, you’ll miss out on warning signs that aren’t apparent from the outside, allowing toxic behavior to go undetected in the office.
3. Emphasize that you’re a team
Negativity in the workplace may stem from your staff viewing themselves as individuals rather than connected pieces of a larger unit. With this perception, it’s common to praise yourself for success and blame everyone else for failure.
Establishing your staff as a cohesive team will save the workplace from a “me vs. them” mentality. One way to go about this is to celebrate group achievements together. When your department has a strong month, give employees a reward they can enjoy together without it being forced, such as a catered meal or paid outing.
Not only will this motivate employees to keep up the hard work, but it’ll also encourage socialization between those who wouldn’t otherwise interact. Fostering familiarity will elevate your staff from employees to teammates or even friends, drastically reducing the likelihood of poor conduct.
Conclusion: Keep up the momentum
Uniting your people takes a lot of work, but your efforts will pay off. However, don’t mistake these strategies for one-and-done solutions. There are no absolute solutions when it comes to rising above a toxic workplace – even the friendliest of workplaces deal with it every now and then.
While bringing employees together can prevent many issues, remember to keep your guard up. A workplace can turn sour quickly, and toxicity never really goes away after the first strike. It only lies dormant waiting for the perfect conditions to reappear in the office.
About the Author
Amanda Wright is a content editor for Better Buys, helping companies find and select the right software solution. She is an experienced writer and covers a wide variety of industries including Human Resources, Business Intelligence, and ERP.
