As the stagnant job market drags on, Colorado employers may be amassing a workforce of dissatisfied and under-performing workers, according to experts at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business.
When the economy is strong and the unemployment rate is low, there is a healthy flow of workers in and out of companies. But when the unemployment rate creeps up and there isn't a lot of hiring, this flow is interrupted, which can lead to an accumulation of unhappy and unproductive workers, according to CU-Boulder Professor of management Joe Rosse of the Leeds School of Business.
"What managers need to think about now is what kinds of problems are coming up as this flat economy drags on," Rosse said. "One problem, and it's a very serious one, is that of the dissatisfied employee."
With the unemployment rate hovering around 6 percent in Colorado, dissatisfied workers are finding it difficult to find another job, so they are staying put, according to Bob Levin, who with Rosse co-directs CU-Boulder's Center for the Integrative Study of Work.
When the economy stalls or becomes stagnant for drawn out periods of time, and the hiring cycle is interrupted, what can happen is the good performers are able to move on, but the poor performers can't and end up staying. The result, according to Rosse, is an "employment perfect storm," where the best employees leave, the worst employees stay and the supply of new talent to replenish those leaving is cut off.
"The question for managers is how fast are the good performers leaving, and are there things causing these people to leave even when the economy is down," Rosse said. "You can hire a mix of good performers and bad performers, and be OK, but if all the good ones leave and the bad ones stay, you have a problem."
What's especially troubling now is the potential combination of a stale job market and a sour work environment. This combination can lead to good talent turning bad, according to Levin.
"What we have is people working longer hours for the same or less money, perhaps under the threat of layoff, and very often without any good leads for another job," said Levin.
In this environment, the manager's job of problem solver becomes especially important, because lingering problems lead to trouble, according to Rosse. When workplace problems remain and nothing is done to correct them, Rosse said three things generally happen. Dissatisfied workers either retaliate against the problem, neglect their job or quit. When the job market is stagnant like it is now, the exit part of the equation isn't available, so work place problems that are not addressed most likely will lead to neglect and retaliation, according to Rosse.
"People want to be in control of things that matter in their lives and will do whatever it takes to make it right. So the first thing a manager wants to do is keep the dissatisfaction low," Rosse said. "And many times this means stepping in and getting to the source of the problem right away." He added due to the stagnant economy, many companies have or are undergoing changes in management, which can contribute to a workplace where issues go unsolved.
Managers can't always eliminate every source of dissatisfaction, so the second line of defense is to make sure that employees find constructive, rather than counterproductive, ways of coping with dissatisfaction. "As a manager you can't control the economy or the labor market, but you can control the way you treat problems," Levin said. "You can do that by making problem-solving the 'least-cost' option for your employees."
Rosse and Levin co-authored the book "Talent Flow: A Strategic Approach to Keeping Good Employees, Helping Them Grow and Letting Them Go," published in 2001, which delves into the challenge of keeping good employees and dealing with workplace dissatisfaction.
The Center for the Integrative Study of Work, part of the Graduate School at CU-Boulder, is a group of researchers from CU and other research organizations who are working to increase the understanding of human work.