What do you think of when
you hear the term “toxic worker”? Someone too lazy to do his or her job? A
person who is known to have conflict with co-workers? Or an employee who
refuses to follow authority?
Sure, all of those things
could certainly lead to a toxic work environment, but a new Harvard Business
School working paper explored in The Washington Post has found a new toxic worker to fear:
The rule follower.
That’s right. According to
the data collected from more than 50,000 employees at 11 companies, it is often
the employee who seems most intent on adhering to the rules that you should be
avoiding. These were the workers most likely to be fired for extreme behavior.
The reason is that these
workers tend not to play well with others. Their rigidity when it comes to the
rules puts them in a position of being overly confident about their own
abilities, and likely overly critical about the work of their peers.
The irony? They also tend
to be corrupt, often drastically eschewing the rules in practice that they
boast to adhere to so stringently in conversation.
From a financial
standpoint, avoiding these workers is key; doing so can actually save your
company over $12,000 annually, compared to the over $5,000 saved by hiring a
superstar employee instead.
But how do you best avoid
them?
Open the Door for Employee
Referrals
One of the best ways to
avoid hiring a toxic worker is to go into that hiring with as much information
as possible. Oftentimes, you may find that your current employees are the best
resource of candidates who could be a good fit. Particularly the employees you
already value as being the superstars they are. These employees have been
networking with their peers for years. They know who is looking, and who is
worth working with.
Offering an incentive for
referrals that result in new hires lasting 90 days or longer could help your
company to tap into that resource.
Ask the Right Questions
The survey found that when
asked about rule following, the strongest employees were those willing to admit
that sometimes, certain rules needed to be broken in order to do a good job.
Those toxic employees, however, remained strict on their rule-following standards,
regardless of the question at hand. Consider asking interviewees how they would
address a task that comes with guidelines that could hinder final product
quality. Their answers may tell you all you need to know.
Don’t Skimp on Reference
Checks
It’s true that most
companies won’t tell you much when it comes to reference checks anymore. Many
shy away from sharing the gruesome details of a past employee’s work history,
mainly for fear of being sued in the process. But you can often tell plenty just
by following up on dates of employment and whether or not a former employee
would be eligible for rehire. When those dates don’t match up with the ones
reported to you by the applicant (or simply boast of a lot of job hopping over
the last few years), and whenever you get a firm “no” on the second
question—it’s always worth digging a bit deeper to determine if this is really
the candidate you want to be hiring.
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