Things to Do When Your Employee Doesn’t Want to Work With the Team

It’s frustrating to not have a team player among your employees. You understand that you will only succeed in doing all the tasks if everyone cooperates. You need to do something about the person who refuses to work with the group and improve the outcome. 

Talk to that employee 

Try to understand the reason behind the refusal to cooperate. It’s possible that the employee doesn’t see the point of what you’re doing in the company. You can talk about the problem and find ways to deal with the issues together. You need to have an open mind during the conversation and avoid expressing your disappointment for the employees’ inability to be a team player. 

Have an open forum

Perhaps, there are personal issues among the employees preventing them from working with another. It’s crucial to discuss these problems as a team. Make sure that everyone remains open-minded during the conversation so that no one gets hurt after hearing negative comments. The goal is to resolve conflicts and not to make them worse. Guide the discussion or find someone to act as a moderator if you’re involved in the conflicts in the team.

Hold a team building activity 

It helps to have a team building exercise where everyone participates. It’s an opportunity to improve the ability to work with each other through a fun and meaningful way. It’s a stress-free environment. It also allows the employees to feel comfortable with each other. You can set a date for the exercise and you might even want to do it outside the workplace. It could also serve as a bonding opportunity for the group. 

If you don’t have time to go somewhere for a retreat and team building exercise, you can consider going out on a dinner whenever possible. You can also try group games like escape rooms or laser tag. These are fun activities that won’t take too much of your employees’ time. In the process, they get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and use it as they start working with each other. Given this set up, any employee who doesn’t like the group might start opening up.

Consider removing the person from the team

Perhaps, you can find a different job that will suit the person. If you believe in the capacity of the employee to perform well, you might have to consider a different post with a new set of colleagues to work with. If you think there’s something wrong with the culture of the people in the team, you might also have to talk to them about it. However, if you think the problem is with that employee, you have no choice but to remove the person from the job. You can’t afford to have someone in the group bringing everyone else down. 

Team work plays a crucial part in any company. You need to find a way to bring everyone on the same page.

Photo Attribution:

Featured and 1^st image from https://www.potential.com/articles/teamwork/

2^nd image from https://imarticus.org/how-do-you-learn-math-quickly-for-machine-and-deep-learning-machine-learning-blog/