means surveying employees and asking them to rate the degrees of disrespect, exclusion, and ethical, cutthroat and abusive behavior. If employees report high levels of the toxicity, you’ll need to go a step further to identify incidents and employees – as any of those behaviors could be considered harassment.
Also note, you’ll want to do company-wide and individual group surveying. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management researchers found that even companies with healthy cultures typically contain pockets of toxicity, due to abusive managers or dysfunctional social norms within certain teams.
Be clear on behavioral expectations
Make no bones about it to new hires and long-time employees: You have behavioral expectations and employees need to follow them.
The best bet is to put behavioral expectations in writing and have employees acknowledge their understanding of those and commitment to upholding them.
While it’s difficult to dictate exactly how employees behave – especially when it comes to what’s considered kind or toxic behaviors – you can at least guide them.
For instance, if an expectation is to be a team player, give employees examples of what team players do: respond to colleagues in a timely manner, acknowledge good work, encourage growth, etc. Or, if ethical behavior is an expectation, remind employees what’s considered unethical: taking credit for a colleague’s work, falsifying information, cheating, etc.
Focus on healthy social norms
Healthy social norms start and grow at the group level, the MIT Sloan researchers emphasized. People adopt social norms because their colleagues do it. Positive changes come from coordinated efforts.
Here are two keys to moving the needle on social norms:
- Encourage work groups to define their social norms. The Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workplace (CREW) of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the guidepost on this. About 15 employees of any one work group within the VHA meet weekly for six months to brainstorm, test and enact new social norms that improve respect in the workplace. They regularly track progress, log acts of civility or disrespect and call out colleagues who violate emerging norms.
- Get managers to talk about social norms. When they talk explicitly about what’s acceptable and what’s not, employees listen. Even better, employees follow when they see the manager practice positive social norms. HR might even want to initiate training for leaders on talking about and exemplifying positive social norms.
Practice the 3-Cares Rule
At the most basic level, a positive work culture is built on care. People caring about their work, company, colleagues and personal well-being.
Remind employees to follow the 3-Cares Rule: Care for themselves; Care for their co-workers; Carefully communicate with their bosses.
Information provided by: HR Morning
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