WHY ATTITUDE SHOULD BE THE NUMBER ONE ESSENTIAL CRITERIA FOR A POSITION DESCRIPTION

I have two staff who do the same job but with very different attitudes. One we’ll call Dave, who has what I describe as a unionist mentality, the ‘us (worker) against them (management)’, do as little as you can get away with, and blame everyone else, it’s not my responsibility attitudes.

The other staff member we’ll call Nick, works hard, gets his job done and is always looking for more work. Recently the opportunity came up to act up in a higher position and Dave was complaining that the essential criteria in the Expression of Interest (EOI) had been worded so that only Nick could get to act up.

Lets start with Nick, because of his attitudes towards work, he worked hard and got his work done, then came looking for more work, he was always helping out the person (we’ll call him Jim) in the higher position. To do this he had to learn how to do the work and use the computer systems. No one asked him to do it or said ‘you need to learn this stuff’, he just did it. So when the EOI came out he was in a position to be able to say ‘yes I can meet the essential criteria’.

Dave on the other hand, barely met the requirements of his own position. He never offered to help Jim out, made no attempt to learn how to do the work or use the systems and almost boasted that he hadn’t been shown how to use the computer systems therefore couldn’t help out. He spent time looking busy but accomplishing very little and thought no one knew how much time he spent doing his own things. In fact he spent more time looking at for other positions on-line than anything else. Of course he was unable to meet the essential criteria in any way and didn’t even apply.

So you know he was really unhappy about the way the EOI was worded and blamed management for ‘wording it so that he couldn’t apply’! Again it was everybody else’s fault, not his, that he was not in a position to apply for the higher grade. He didn’t look at it from managements perspective of ‘we need someone to fill this position, who can do the job’, I mean lets face it what manager would choose someone who can’t do the job over someone who can. Dave also thought his level of activity went unnoticed, but managers are very aware of who is quietly getting on with the job, who is efficient, who is blustering and who is walking around looking busy, but getting very little done.

Someone may be meeting Key Performance Indicators – just, but let’s face it KPI’s are set as a minimum standard that staff are expected to reach. They are set up to measure workers like Dave to ensure they at least meet some standard. If everyone was a worker like Steve you would never need KPI’s in the first place, in fact this was the case in this workplace, that while we knew we needed KPI’s, we hadn’t got around to putting them in place until we hired Dave, but they became essential just to manage his poor performance.

So, if you are a worker reading this, ask yourself am I a Dave or a Nick, and be very aware that your manager knows which one you are, so don’t fool yourself because no one else is fooled.

If you are a manager hiring new staff, make attitude an essential requirement in your position description, having the right attitude for a job will make all the difference to how hard you have to work as a manager. Ask for evidence of their attitude in past positions, or in life for young workers. Getting the right person, with the right attitude, will make all the difference to your business success.

Having staffing issues in your workplace?

Let us teach you how to:

• Hire and fire wisely - get the right person for the job - the first time
• Set up KPI's for staff so everyone knows what is expected
• Training for staff on how to work together well, understand each other, and love their work
• How to constantly improve through improved systems and professional development
• How to manage change in a positive way

To your business success

Sue Crosbie