Your company might be successfully chugging along and have a healthy bottom line, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t bad habits creeping in.

Bad habits have a way of going unnoticed or unfixed for a long period of time. Before you know it, employees are unhappy and you’re having trouble retaining good workers.

However, it’s never too late to purge the rot. Breaking bad habits only requires the right attitude, determination and occasionally a bit of investment. Ultimately, if you want to attract top talent and hold onto them, you need to create an environment that top talent wants to work in every day.

Bad habits that need breaking

The habits of a management team are some of the best indicators of the health of a company. If they have bad tempers, a hands-off attitude, poor communication, lack of cohesion and bad organization, the employees beneath them will bear the brunt of these shortcomings. Ultimately, it will translate into a lower quality of service or production.

Healthy competition to perform well can be a positive attribute for a company. However, when employees are in a bad environment, competition can become unhealthy backbiting and lead to friction throughout a company’s internal processes.

Another bad habit is allowing employees’ skills to stagnate or atrophy. You may have tasks that need completing, but your staff isn’t up to the task. Valuable training also boosts morale, and happier workers are almost always more productive.

The fix starts with you

Hopefully, these bad habits and others like them don’t sound familiar. But if they do, how do you go about turning the ship around?

First, realize that everything starts with you. If you want to be a better communicator, start reaching out more often to management and staff with clearly detailed thoughts and concerns. Those around you will slowly pick up on the change and follow suit.

Solving management issues can also be accomplished by making your leadership team more accessible. Encourage the leadership team to engage their employees and listen to ideas or complaints. Take all valid suggestions seriously and follow up with those that made them.

Finally, make it clear that “bad news is good news.” Too often, employees are afraid to tell their supervisor something they think they don’t want to hear. This can go both ways as leadership may be reluctant to tell employees about a bad quarter or year. Both scenarios lead to a breakdown in communication and trust.

Install or reinforce good company policies

After you’ve started working on correcting bad company habits, begin thinking about how to reinforce or create policies that lead to change.

If you don’t conduct them already, hold regular team-building events to strengthen a sense of community among staff. Schedule training sessions that teach useful skills or techniques to your employees. Companies that don’t cultivate a sense of teamwork, or allow their employees to grow, often have trouble holding onto top talent.

Finally, work on flattening the company structure as much as possible. Management can fall victim to groupthink. Valuing ideas that come from every part of the company can lead to innovation and better efficiency. Flattening a company structure gives employees a sense of ownership and pride in where they work.

At Long Island Temps we know bad habits can creep in. Changing those habits starts with bringing in the right talent, and that’s something we can do for you. Contact us today!