November 8th, 2011 → 10:09 am @ Gabe // One Comment

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “How a Few Bad Apples Ruin Everything”, weeding out those underperforming employees may be more important than you thought.

Author Robert Sutton writes, “A growing body of research suggests that having just a few nasty, lazy or incompetent characters around can ruin the performance of a team or an entire organization- no matter how stellar the other employees.” While we all know how a lazy or annoying coworker can grate on our patience, you may be surprised to find how large of an impact they can have on your own work. According to a study referenced in the article, having just one slacker or jerk on a team can bring down performance by 30% to 40%!

What does this mean for you? Letting that employee slip by or get away with their poor behavior/performance is more harmful than you might have thought. In addition to hindering the poor performers success by showing them that they can get away with their shenanigans you are damaging the performance of your entire business, rock stars included.

You may be wondering how you can avoid hiring these bad apples in the first place. Consider taking a different approach to hiring, assessing, and interviewing potential candidates. If at all possible, screen them under realistic conditions or give them a trial project so you can better assess their qualifications and on the job work style.

Tags: achievement, bad apples, building your business, hiring, performance, Talent Aquisition, underperformers, weeding out