How Can We Encourage Professionalism and Responsibility in Our IT Team Without Punishment?

Challenges in Professionalism and Responsibility

We are in the IT sector, with our central office in Pune and regional offices in Kolkata and Nagpur. We are facing the following issues:

• Employees' dress sense is not professional.
• Personal cleanliness and grooming are not acceptable.
• There is a lack of professionalism, with very casual behavior observed in the workplace.
• Telephonic conversations with clients are very poor.
• Professional email drafting is marginal.
• We have guest house privileges in the above-mentioned cities, but even those are not kept clean.
• Responsibility towards both work and office infrastructure/utilities is lacking. Project work is abandoned for personal reasons. How should we respond to our clients?

We are responsible to our clients for work completion. As far as office infrastructure/utilities are concerned, less accountability is seen.

Seeking Solutions for Improvement

My challenge is to make our employees more professional and morally responsible towards work and office infrastructure/utilities, but not through punishment or humiliation. Instead, I aim to achieve this through a process of reward. How can this be achieved?

Please help.

Regards,
Sapana

Dear Sapana, Most entrepreneurs, when they start their company, are obsessed with their vision. For them, financial investment is of paramount importance. However, in day-to-day life, what is important is giving specific shape to the organization's culture. How to work, how to deal with colleagues, and how to deal with customers are very important. Your problems have arisen because no conscious efforts have been made to define the company's culture.

You have given a list of the points that you feel are odd. However, what about your MD? Why is he silent on the odd behavior of his employees? Why is he turning a cold shoulder to all this? Does it mean that this behavior is acceptable to him? In that case, you cannot do anything.

At this stage, I can say that you may propose conducting training on business etiquette for all the employees. Secondly, make an SOP on workplace etiquette. Thirdly, whenever a newcomer comes on board, include this training as a part of the induction training. There will be some change. If there is support from top management, then there will be lasting change.

One of the important factors of an organization's culture is discipline. You cannot have a culture of discipline without imposing discipline. Be it your children or employees, if you wish to bring uniformity in their behavior, then you cannot do it by mollycoddling them. Positive and negative discipline both have to go hand in hand, and you cannot be wary of either.

The points that you have mentioned are frankly common sense. No formal training is required to educate persons on these points. But there lies the catch with your industry.

The IT industry boasts of the education of the employees. Nevertheless, your post has uncovered the underbelly of the SMEs of the IT industry. Not that yours is the first post of this kind. In this forum, similar posts have come up earlier also. However, what matters is the acceptance of the fact that you are as similar as any other industry. Putting up with the uncouthness of the employees on the one hand and maintaining mental segregation for being different from others is nothing but a paradox. The leadership of your MD lies in the eradication of this paradox and not living with it.

My views are straightforward. But the objective was not to ruffle your feathers.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Hi Sapana,

I hope HR systems and processes are properly established in your company. I suggest conducting behavioral training for all employees so that they are aware of what is expected from them. Once the training is completed, you can begin monitoring the progress and address any issues that arise.

In this scenario, someone needs to take charge and ensure the implementation is successful; otherwise, the situation may deteriorate over time. I hope this advice will assist you in managing the situation effectively.

Improving Organizational Conduct and Professionalism

This is a classic case where people with high qualifications and IQ do not conduct themselves properly as a group. The leader has to set an example.

Is your MD convinced that there is sloppiness in the organization? Sometimes perception varies among people, or they do not care about a clean environment, etc., but focus only on the bottom line.

Assuming that the top management wants change, I would suggest that your MD drafts an example email highlighting the need for a clean office. The email can serve two purposes: demonstrating how an email should be written and conveying the need for cleanliness. Secondly, the top brass can set an example in dressing. While no dress code should be enforced, at least show that clothes make the man.

Test the communication by calling from outside as if you are a vendor or client to understand the attitude of employees. Once that is assessed, take clear steps to improve communication by example, by monitoring communications, and making the HODs/project heads responsible for better and business-like communications with clients/stakeholders.

As far as project completion is concerned, clearly fixing responsibility for timely delivery and quality should be the first step. Frequent briefings by the project head on the status of the project concerning delivery dates and QRs should be introduced. No compromise on vital QRs/KRAs should be permitted.

The higher officials should clearly interact with all staff and instill a sense of customer orientation, making it clear that customer delight is our aim. Management needs to convey seriousness and professionalism in all dealings. While it is not suggested to take harsh action for failure, the employee should understand that they are employed for a purpose and must adhere to basic etiquette and produce results for which they are hired.

Examples, interaction, social interaction, and get-togethers can be used to iron out problem areas and bring about a purposeful office environment.

Regards,