As the saying goes, “we all make mistakes.”
Some are bigger than others and, as a result, more costly to your company. However, as a leading staffing agency, Peoplelink knows you can actually make these situations worse by making one big mistake yourself: over-reacting.
Instead, look at each mistake – big or small – as a teachable moment for your staff. If you don’t, they’ll be fearful of ever taking risks and going outside the box, which can stall innovation.
So rather than freaking out when mistakes happen – which they will – consider some of these tips instead:
Stay Calm.
Your gut reaction when you find out a mistake has been made might be to yell at the employee who’s to blame. But bite your tongue. Hurling insults and yelling won’t solve anything. So try to remain cool, calm and respectful.
Discuss the Mistake With Your Employee.
Depending on the severity of the mistake, this might call for you simply to swing by your employee’s office for a quick chat, or it might call for a private meeting together in your office. Whatever the case, discuss the issue sooner rather than later while the details are still fresh in everyone’s head.
Give Your Employee an Opportunity to Tell Their Side.
During your meeting, don’t assume the mistake resulted from incompetence or carelessness. Give your employee a chance to tell their side. There might be a justifiable reason for the error. Once you know what caused the mistake, you can then better determine how to correct it.
Establish Expectations.
Perhaps the mistake resulted from lack of training or inexperience dealing with a certain matter. If that’s the case, you and your employee need to develop a plan together to shore up the weakness and then establish expectations for future performance.
Leave Things on a Positive Note.
You might be tempted to say something like, “this better not happen again.” But don’t do it. Instead, thank the employee for their time and their commitment to working with you to come up with a solution. They’ll be much more likely to stick with the plan and want to impress you if you remain professional and respectful.
Are Mistakes Happening Because You’re Understaffed?
When employees are stretched to the limit, mistakes happen. To supplement your core staff, consider bringing temporary employees on board to help complete projects and tasks during busy or peak periods.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can benefit from temporary staffing, contact Peoplelink. As a leading staffing agency, we can deliver fast access to qualified and dependable temporary help, when you need it.
