Sometimes a business owner or manager may be confused by the change in behavior of an employee who is usually productive and pays close attention to details. They could see employees fail to work at their normal pace, make unusual mistakes, do low-quality work or spend too much time talking.
When an employee’s performance begins to drift to unacceptable levels, it may be due to complacency. Complacency is defined as, “A feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.”
Some other words that describe complacency include contentment, carelessness, disinterest, self-congratulation, pride, slackness and laziness.
Complacent employees may tune out at work, become lost in thought or be easily distracted. They might seem to lack a caring attitude or fail to follow the instructions and requests of their manager or the business owner.
We may see some patterns in their comments and behaviors that make it clear they have an attitude that their work only needs to be “good enough” rather than excellent. They may start to take shortcuts, avoid certain types of work or lose their desire to take on additional work.
Left unaddressed, this complacency will escalate to the point where they lack sincere concern for the animals in their care or their co-workers, become accident-prone and fail to notice problems that clearly exist in their own area. If these issues are mentioned to them, they will often blame it on someone else or act as though there really isn’t a problem at all.
Why complacency occurs
Complacency usually starts with very minor tendencies of these behaviors. An employee with a good work ethic and personal character will typically notice these attitudes and behaviors in themselves and make their own corrections before anyone notices. It is more common, though, that employees exhibiting complacency will need to be coached on the changes that need to be made. To provide that coaching, we first need to know the common causes of complacency.
Some employees become overconfident in their abilities. They reach a point where they think they have mastered the skills required for their job and relax. This overconfidence leads to overestimating their abilities and rejecting suggestions for improvement.
If accountability is lacking in the workplace environment, it will lead to procedural drift, where an employee’s performance slowly degrades without being corrected. As a rule, anything that is not monitored will continue to get worse. If an employee is allowed to disregard rules or procedures without consequences, their behaviors and performance will stay on that same trajectory.
Additionally, factors outside of the workplace can affect an employee’s level of engagement and lead to complacency. If they have significant personal issues in their life, they can become so focused on these struggles that they will live their workday distracted by those issues. When an employee’s personal problems are significant enough to affect their work performance, it is best that someone in management or ownership have a conversation with them to understand the issue. With that knowledge, the appropriate coaching can be provided or a referral to a professional adviser can be shared.
Strategies for overcoming complacency
- Embrace creativity. Think of new ways to do a job, ways to create greater enjoyment of the job or ways to keep the job more interesting.
- Recognize and overcome boredom with your staff. Know which jobs employees find boring and look for ways to reduce that boredom. Share ways that employees can see the task as more important than they currently perceive it to be. Consider rotating people through those tasks more often and make certain that employees are cross-trained to do several tasks.
- Help employees understand why you do what you do, how your products are used, the ways that your products or services benefit the community and how they can get personal satisfaction from their role in providing them for the community.
- Look for and identify the personal motivators of each employee, then find ways for them to utilize their motivators in some part of their work. The more they can connect the activities they like the most to some of their tasks, the more likely they are to be motivated in many areas of their responsibilities.
- Encourage your most productive and efficient employees to help someone else become better at their job. This can give them a sense of purpose and allow them to get satisfaction from improving someone’s abilities and their opportunities.
- Create a sense of accomplishment and purpose by having them do some tasks that have needed to be done for a long time. The area that needs to be reorganized, cleaned, repainted or improved in some way can provide everyone with a sense of satisfaction and a visible example of their extra work.
- Allow for plenty of feedback. Keep communications open so there is a regular exchange of ideas and preferences.
- Expect regular personal growth within employees’ capabilities. Challenge people to reach their full potential. Look for signs that the employee has more potential than they realize.
- Provide regular praise for what they are doing well, for extra effort, for consistency and for coming up with ideas or new strategies. Words are more powerful and carry extra meaning when they come from someone higher up in the company.
- Establish the company as a business that cherishes its employees and wants the best for them. Look out for their personal needs as well as ways to make their job more enjoyable. When employees have the support of their family, and the family sees their workplace as a personal benefit to everyone, it will build loyalty that few other benefits can provide.
Even if your business is not currently experiencing any levels of complacent behavior, choose a few of these activities to show your employees you care about them and desire to create a workplace that is very enjoyable, rewarding and engaging. The strategies mentioned here can help build any business, as well as its employees, to their full potential.
