There are 18 people in my department, most of whom are self-motivated needing little supervision.  Unfortunately, there are a few bad apples that may spoil the whole bunch.  Two workers are somewhat careless (most mistakes are caused by them) and a couple others often only do what they need to get by so others need to pick up the slack.  We have weekly department meetings where I continually address the need for accuracy and teamwork but there’s no improvement.  In fact, some of my good workers have started to grumble and it seems like they’re starting to get bad attitudes too.  What can I do before they all become bad apples?

One of the gravest errors that many supervisors and managers make is to address the performance or behavior issues of individuals in a general manner with the whole team.  While this may seem like a good way to make sure everyone gets the same message, most often those who need to get the message don’t and the rest feel scolded for someone else’s poor behavior.  So instead of improving the performance of the “bad apples”, you end up lowering the morale of everyone else.  Try this instead:

Address individual issues individually.  Meet privately with an employee to deal with performance or behavior concerns when problems arise.  Present specific information about the problem - you made three inventory errors this month that cost the company $5,000 - and engage the employee in problem solving to develop a corrective action plan.  Follow up to assess progress toward the stated goal(s).

Offer suitable resources.  Just telling an employee to make fewer mistakes will rarely solve an error problem and the same is true for most performance and behavior issues.  Help the employee access any necessary resources to assist in improving performance or behavior such as training, coaching, etc.

Use group meetings appropriately.  Only address group issues - such as concerns that require group problem-solving or problems that need corrective action by the majority of employees - at department meetings.  When you need to ensure that everyone gets the same message about things like policy enforcement or consequences for poor performance, clearly state that this is your purpose in addressing the group.  Assure them that individual infractions will be dealt with separately and privately.  Department meetings are also a great place to offer praise and recognition, both individually and for the group, in order to highlight the performance and behaviors you want modeled.

Every bushel can have a few bad apples – they’ll only spoil the bunch if you don’t deal with them appropriately.

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