Running a business can be extremely difficult as managing all of the different personalities in the office makes it impossible not to encounter conflict. Employees can also be in personal crisis which can impact their ability to do the job they are paid to do. Retention of employees is important as a high employee turnover is hard to overcome as a business. Cash flow issues come with low employee retention as it can be expensive to train even the best of hires. This does not ensure that the hire will be a success either. You also want those in the office to feel comfortable as a chronically upset person is terrible for morale. The following are issues that can occur with staff and how to deal these appropriately to keep the business healthy.
Divorce
A person in the company going through a divorce needs to be handled with care. This does not mean they can constantly show up late and miss production numbers by a mile. Rather if they need to work from home due to a meeting with their lawyer or have a small dip make sure they understand the company cares. The employee will appreciate this as divorce is one of the most stressful things a person can go through in life. If offered another job the employee will remember when the company treated them in an understanding manner in their time of need.
Substance Abuse
Substance abuse impacts all professions so regardless of the business you run employees could have developed an addiction. This can be dangerous as employee theft increases in likelihood if an employee cannot support their addiction financially. The other possibility is losing long time customers due to their interaction with an employee that was clearly under the influence. If this has not impacted their job sit them down and ask them to attend a substance abuse program. Showing up drunk or high cannot be tolerated so there should be one warning for this if they did not offend a client or has never been close to happening before.
Arrested For A Serious Crime
A person that is arrested for murder is going to need a murder defense attorney rather than a job. Most of the time the offense is not as serious but might make others in the office uncomfortable like that of a sexual offense or violence against their spouse. DUIs are the most common offense that staff might try to hide from their employer. If nothing is mentioned in any media this can be overlooked and it can be difficult to find out if any employee was arrested in certain states that do not publish arrest mugshots. Multiple arrests can indicate a substance abuse problem that needs to be addressed. Ethics clauses in employment contracts can allow a company to terminate someone regardless if they are found guilty or not.
Employees have personal issues all of the time but some compartmentalize while others allow it to enter the office. Use the tactics above when encountering these different scenarios when running a business.