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Home Affairs and It’s effect on Performance Management
Home Affairs means the happenings in and around the home. These things in a person’s life bring happiness and sadness, victories and losses, and many more.
Having these events or circumstances unresolved or improperly handled can affect an employee’s performance at the workplace as they could make it difficult to concentrate and do well at your job.
“What happens at home affects what happens at work.” Adeola Kingsley James
When employees encounter challenges, anxieties, and difficulties in their various homes, it decreases their productivity at the workplace. If an employee is sad or disheartened based on what he or she is confronting at home, it would negatively influence his or her efficiency at the office.
Often, organizations feel it’s improper to show empathy toward employees’ personal affairs and relationships. This kind of modus operandi does not get the best out of them. Organizations should not only be after the performance or achievements of their employees but also after their personal affairs too. If an employee is doing well at home, he or she will be able to give his or her best.
How Do You Know an Employee has a Troubling Home Affair:
- Trembling and nervous
- Low attention to dressing
- Not taking care of his or her hygiene
- Alcohol on breath
- Overreaction to criticism
- Isolation from colleagues
- Abrupt emotional outbursts
- Mood swings
- Forgetfulness
- Improper behaviour at work
- Absenteeism and Tardiness
- Coming late and departing early
- Wasting office materials
- Increased operating errors
- Increasingly inadequate work quality
- Faulty decision making
What To Do as a Manager if Your Employee has Personal Problems:
- Be Accessible: Occasionally, you need to make yourself accessible to your employees. Be that kind of employer or manager your employees can walk up to and share the issues that trouble them at work and in their personal affairs.
Keeping an open-door system enables your employees facing personal issues to appreciate and respect your understanding.
- Maintain a Professional Relationship: When your employee is going through a tough time, it’s reasonable that you’ll want to show empathy to him or her. Yet, it’s also important and wise that you keep it professional at the same time. It’s great to show compassion and care for your employees when faced with tough times. Rather than being overly involved, you could recommend them to people who can help them.
- Don’t make promises you can’t fulfill: You may be moved to help your employees, but this could cause you to promise something you don’t have the power to fulfill.
You may be able to say they can go home today or for three days if sick. But can you offer them some weeks away from work without getting prior permission from your boss? You don’t want to make any decisions that aren’t for you to make. Focus on how you can improve your employee’s circumstances.
- Do a follow-up: You shouldn’t simply imagine that everything has turned out well if you never hear anything again. You need to follow up with your employee’s concerns.
This may simply be sending them an email asking how they’re doing or stopping by when you pass their desk on your way to your office. By checking in with your troubled employees, you show that you care about their whole welfare and not just their work performance. Reminding them that you’re happy to talk more if they need to speak with you about their problem again is also recommended.
- Find other ways to handle Productivity Challenges: Ensure that the challenges your employees face don’t negatively impact your company’s productivity. One of the ways to handle this is by handing over your employee’s tasks to other people. This is most suitable as a temporary measure. If your employee then needs to take a long time off work, you will need to hire a temporary or permanent employee to take on their duties.
It is not a manager’s duty to sort out employees’ personal problems, but good communication is required. Employers or managers must be kept in the picture, possibly intervening using a good referral or being a little more empathetic if the employee’s job performance is not entirely up to its usual standard.
Most times, early intervention can prevent a problem from becoming bigger.