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If you ask a general question of your employees, “Is there one department or section of the company that creates, or causes or generates a lot of company problems?” Many times you will get a consensus of opinions about one area. Employees are smart and notice ineffective departments that hold up their own work progress. They know the problem department. As management, do not mistakenly assume the problem is an employee. Employees do not create problems. Employees without guidance or supervision cause problems.
Troublesome department probably means “needs training”. When you have asked about a troublesome department, take the approach to the problem that it stems from lack of training and certainly not any deliberate actions of any employees. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Listen to their reasons why their department is behind schedule, or creates problems, or loses paperwork or employs untrained workers. Maybe the problem lies in lack of training, uneven work flows (bring in temporary workers four hours per day on heavy days) or the area is understaffed (i.e. Two of five employee slots are unfilled or 40% open positions).
Department problems normally stem from inadequate direction from the top. Maybe the ‘department problem’ stems from a poor manager. Maybe your corporate processes need rewriting or are not written at all? Pursue all of these reasons before firing personnel. Give them a shot and tell them so upfront. Most employees want the company to be successful because they want to remain working. Most do not want to look for work especially when they know their jobs. All of the other departments are watching your reaction so be professional about your approach. Your job is to find out the problems and allow everyone to help solve them. Most likely 80% of your problems stem from 20% of the organization.
