Toxicity in any organization is contagious and quickly spreads to your good employees. What’s more, these employees are much more likely than the toxic staff members to seek alternative employment. After all, they are good at their job and can easily transfer to a company with a positive working environment. If toxicity is destructive in the larger corporate environment, it is lethal in the smaller business. It is absolutely critical that employers focus their attention on avoiding toxic employees in the first place and, alternatively, do their best to identify and eradicate dangerous employee behavior quickly, before it has ripple effects on the bad behavior and voluntary departure of co-workers.

1. Brought to you by
HOW TO AVOID, DETECT, & CORRECT
TOXIC
EMPLOYEES

2. Meet your presenter
A San Francisco native, Mike first came to Australia in 1986,
returning with his Australian family to permanently reside in
Sydney in 2005.
Over the course of the past 25 years, ‘shared-technology’
solutions have underscored his career. In the late 90’s, Mike was
introduced to the Talent sector, quickly developing a passion for
applying Saas solutions to develop, empower and align people
to realise their potential and the objectives of the company in
which they work.
Mike joined Cornerstone OnDemand in 2014 to lead the
company's efforts in the Australia and New Zealand region and
is part of an amazing team who are passionate about using
technology to engage people and drive business performance.
Mike Erlin
Managing Director,
Australia & New
Zealand

3. How to interact

4. What Does Toxic Mean?
Definition: Acting as
or having the effect
of a poison; poisonous:

5. We are not talking about
specific PEOPLE, but rather the
BEHAVIOURS they are exhibiting.

6. Evidence suggests that
toxic employees are more
focused on the quantity
of the work produced
than the quality.

7. Toxic behaviour is contagious!
The presence of a single toxic employee can increase
the turnover of good team members up to 54%.
Higher attrition rate due to toxic employees can cost
up to $8,800 per year – and per toxic employee.

8. So first let’s try to understand the
WHY?

9. Reasons for TOXIC Behaviour Vary:
 Does not understand
the company’s vision
 Is disconnected from
the company’s mission
 Is not in the right role
 Is not being managed
properly
 Suffers from poor
emotional or social skills
 Is experiencing
problems at home
 Feels
underappreciated

10. But one thing is very clear:
SOMETHING Must Change

11. What DAMAGE can be done?
 Toxic employees have a remarkably strong
impact on voluntary attrition (more so than
on day-to-day workplace performance)
 They ‘destroy the social fabric of the
organisation by creating friction, drama,
tension and hostility among other
employees’

12. Can We Quantify
the Effects of
Toxic Employees?

13. Wharton 2013, Careerbuilder 2012
Lower Productivity
30% drop in team performance due to one bad apple
69% of employers report being adversely affected by a bad hire
41% estimated the cost to be more than $25,000
24% said a bad hire cost more than $50,000

14.  Increased Turnover
54% increase in the likelihood of losing a
good employee due to the presence of just
ONE toxic employee
 Decreased Revenue
$$ loss of revenue due to client dissatisfaction
after exposure to a toxic employee
Cornerstone/Kellogg 2014

15. It is CRITICAL that
employers focus their
attention on avoiding
toxic employees in the
first place.
Alternatively, the
responsibility lies with the
employer to IDENTIFY
and ERADICATE toxic
behaviour as quickly as
possible.

16. Successful business
depends on successful
people.
Therefore, it only makes
sense to put effort into
finding those who’ll help
you succeed.

17. How to Avoid Hiring Toxic
Employees

18. It is harder than ever to
predict a good hire:
 Recruiters spend an average of five to seven
seconds looking at resumes – focusing mainly
on previous experience and salary
requirements
 Job seekers have learned to game the online
application system by using key ‘buzz’ words
 Candid reference checks are rare

19. Assessments to identify toxicity:
 Cognitive Ability Tests
o Mentally can’t perform tasks
 Personality Tests
o Socially aren’t suited to the tasks
or team
 Motivation Assessments
o Motivationally challenged

20. • My SUPERVISOR will reward
successful performance
• I have a relationship with my
SUPERVISOR which would
be difficult to break
• My SUPERVISOR treats me
with fairness and respect
• My SUPERVISOR is committed
to excellent customer service
• I am inspired by my
SUPERVISOR to do my best
Non-Toxic
Leadership:
• I am inspired by my ORGANISATION
to do my best
• I will be fairly rewarded for
achieving my objectives
• I feel safe to share my ideas
with my ORGANISATION
• I speak highly of my
TEAM when talking to others
• I enjoy working with my TEAM
Non-Toxic
Employees:
Wonderlic (2015)
Positive perceptions decrease toxic behaviors:

21. What If You Already Have
Toxic Employees?

22. Why do most managers avoid
dealing with Toxic behaviour?
• Too busy with more urgent matters
• They are uncomfortable “Confronting” the
behaviour directly
• Lack talent management skills to deal with
the behaviour effectively

23. Identify who is the toxic employee:
• Unreliable
• Unlikely to help others
• Change in behaviour
• Vocal on their negativity
• Claim to follow the rules

24. Toxic employees speak loud and take
credit
Janet Britcher’s* advice
 Turn down the volume on charm
 Listen to the words
 Watch the action
 Note some of these common behaviours:
• Are they great in a group but critical one-on-one?
• Do they manage up well, but throw peers under the bus?
• Do they take all the credit?
• Do you find yourself defending them because they are so
insightful, despite repeated reports from reliable co-
workers about the damage they leave in their wake?
*President of Transformation Management

25. Do You Help Them or Weed
Them Out?

26. How Do You Correct
Toxic Behaviours?

27. How to address the problem – 5 steps discussion
 STEP 1: Opening: say something positive, but explain the issue
 STEP 2: Getting agreement: cite examples of toxic behavior,
ask for fact-based agreements
 STEP 3: Alternatives: make and ask for suggestions, discuss
benefits and drawbacks
 STEP 4: Getting a commitment to act: encourage employee to
talk, agree and praise to reinforce what employee says
 STEP 5: Closing: consolidate, thank employee and let him/her
know the follow up
Edward R. Mitnick, Esq., Just Training Solutions, LLC

28. Understand what the employee really wants
or needs:
 Interesting work
 Challenging work
 To feel value in what they’re doing
 Feeling ‘In’ on the ‘bigger picture’
 Appreciation for work well done
 Good wages
 Good working conditions
 Job security
 Deserved promotions/growth
opportunities
 Tactful disciplining
 Sympathetic help with
personal problems

29. What can help here?
 Training/Coaching
 Performance Evaluations

30. Transforming the Toxic behaviour through
coaching and training
 Coaching
• Developing managers' skills in this area
• One-on-one coaching
• Regular feedback
 Training
• Look for creative development opportunities
• Learning new skills
• Being challenged
• Adding to self-worth
• Being ‘invested in’

31. Transforming the Toxic behaviour through
effective performance management
 Identify the problem
 Engage in an interactive dialogue with employee
 Listen to employee’s reasons for poor performance
 Constructive coaching
 Identify manager’s responsibilities for addressing the
performance problem.
 Recognising efforts and work done well
 Collect and prepare the 3 D’s:
• Data
• Document
• Details

32. Avoid toxic employees in the first
place and do your best to
identify and eradicate poisonous
behaviour quickly.

33. Visit our webpage at
https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com.au/
Join us at
twitter @CSOD_ANZ
Blog https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com.au/blog
For more information, or to schedule a demo, contact:
E: info_anz@csod.com

34. Thank You