When Bare Minimum Trumps Effort: Employees are Frustrated

Talent is like property (like a house...in a good way). It appreciates in value over a long term. The more people gain experience, the more strategic and efficient they become. By providing freedom and flexibility for talent to learn, we are allowing them to increase the value that we benefit from as corporate South Africa.

Sometimes, it does not quite happen like that. Some talent could feel that they are providing more than required without any appreciation. So, they start holding back. They start to make less effort and switch to bare minimum mode. Instead of understanding the underlying reasons, HR is called in and things become messy. From performance contracts to "if you do not want to be here, then leave", relationships get broken.

For any executive in corporate who thinks strategically, all of this is too expensive. It costs both time and money. They would rather handle it in a positive way. However, we are facing a bit of a leadership decay in corporate SA. This is not common sense to every executive. Either way, this needs to be dealt with because it affects the entire workforce market.

When speaking to some of my most brilliant career coaching clients (in my assessment), it always comes as a shock when I hear that they have resorted to bare minimum. They are seasoned talent that can move a company into higher heights. Yet, they sit with performance contracts which are kind of a threat. This is where companies lose good talent.

In order to mitigate this in corporate SA, I found 4 mistakes that companies should avoid.

The lousy "Thank You"

When an employee does something that is higher than expected, clapping for them is not enough. That could be the time to take their development seriously. Put together a personal development plan. Give them more challenging projects. Be intentional about their growth and let them see it.

The "My Way or the Highway"

If a manager has already made up their mind that things should be done their way only, then there is no point in coming up with new ideas. There is no reason to do more. People will follow their job description to the T. They will collect their paycheck and go home. It will be a cycle.

The "You are not ready"

The biggest issue with performance appraisals is that they test you against what you signed up for. They seldom test you on how ready you are for the next level. You cannot tell if a person is ready for more challenging work if you have never assessed them on how they fair on difficult projects that are outside their current scope. Simple.

The "It's above your pay grade"

Yes, pay grades do determine scope and what you can access to a large degree. However, what if an employee feels like they want to take a shot at something more complex? Can access to those "classified" projects be facilitated in an appropriate manner or is that a dead end? We cannot be rigid in 2024.

The more we break people in the workplace, the more we flood the market with broken people. None of us, as business leaders, will be able to find good talent. All of us will suffer.

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