If you want to prevent or address workplace incivility, you’ll find no shortage of obstacles.

The vast majority of the comments found in our HR Reporter survey on workplace incivility’s open-ended sections, point to two major obstacles.

Not surprisingly, the first obstacle respondents describe is this: senior managers are often the biggest offenders. And if the leaders model these bad behaviours, there’s no chance of taking meaningful action to curtail it elsewhere.

The second obstacle relates to the murky nature of the problem, and its multi-dimensionality. For example, “more often than not, things are said in a joking way”; “sometimes what was ok yesterday, is not okay today!!!”; “some people are perceived to have ‘untouchable’ status”; “most incidents of incivility are not brought to the appropriate personnel”;  and; “there are no laws about incivility, so companies have no specific policies on this”.

Still, these complexities are no excuse for letting incivility damage both the business and its people.

The time is now for organizations to begin connecting the dots: incivility is a risk that needs to be managed just like any other risk. It needs to be diagnosed correctly and addressed in a thoughtful way.

Having seen the effects of workplace incivility on key organizational indicators, how do HR folks deal with the issue?
With their ability to take meaningful action limited by the (very) questionable support they get from management, here’s what HR folks do:

• They get busy revising policies (69%), however only 7% initiate the creation of Team Charters that would help employees take ownership of these revised policies.
• They provide training to management (51%) and front line staff (54%), but only 17% are able to create an overall strategic organizational response.
• 34% hang posters, distribute pamphlets and do newsletters write-ups, however only 34% make it `a topic of conversation across the organization’.
• And many, as gleaned from the survey’s open comments sections, simply `do nothing’, or they deal with the issue on a case-by-case basis.

These results point to a glaring incongruence between the magnitude of the incivility risk (we’ve covered that in the previous entries in this series) and organizational responses to it. The organizational resources dedicated to solving the problem dwarf in comparison with the costs associated with its impact.
But before we get all up-in-arms about a lack of initiative and focus on HR’s part, it might be worth looking at the (very real) obstacles they face.
Which is exactly what I’ll do next week, in the final instalment of this series!

So what happens when HR gets a complaint about workplace incivility? (= those seemingly inconsequential, discourteous or rude words or actions, where the intent to harm is ambiguous at best.)

Okay, we’ve established through the recent HR Reporter survey that workplace incivility does impact key organizational indicators. However, a set of questions about how organizations respond to it revealed a troubling reality.

As the numbers below show, we see within HR itself large pockets which lack both confidence and skill in dealing with the issue. This is true despite the fact that 73% of survey respondents comprised of executives, managers and supervisors, and another 17% identified themselves as `senior individual contributors’.

When asked about their reaction when they received formal or informal civility-related complaint…

• 77% “wished they had more knowledge and tools to deal with this situation”
• 39% “felt unsure how to handle the situation”
• 37% did not “know exactly what to do” to fix it
• 81% “wish management was more aware of how incivility impacts the business”
• 72% “wish they had more organizational support”

This lack of information and skills is disconcerting. It demonstrates that there’s little understanding and support from the organization’s management tiers. And it also shows that HR’s lack of skill leads to a compromised ability to support the business and its leaders – and that HR professionals may inadvertently mishandle situations.

So how do organizations actually handle incivility on the ground? We asked about that too, and I’ll relay the data to you next week!

We’re back with the hot-off-the-press of the first ever cross-Canada survey on workplace incivility!

As seen from HR’s unique vantage point, incivility is exceedingly damaging to business. An overwhelming majority of our 308 respondents `strongly agreed’ or `somewhat agreed’ that incivility has a significant negative effect on crucial organizational indicators.

Here’s where they saw its impact…  ready for some striking data? here goes:

• Effects on productivity: 92% observed that incivility had negative effects in this domain.
• Customer service: 72% noted impact in the arena.
• Absenteeism: 79%
• Talent retention: 78%
• Interdepartmental collaboration: 90%
• Damage to brand reputation: 52%

These figures tell us that incivility poses a tangible risk to organizations. Previous U.S.-based research has already pointed to a relationship between incivility and similar organizational indicators, however our survey’s high figures go well beyond what has been previously observed. What respondents relayed is that this seemingly benign form of bad behaviour comes with hefty price tags. When your brand is eroding, customers are going elsewhere, you’re having difficulty attracting and retaining talent and the cost of sick leaves is rising, your capacity to carry out the organization’s objectives is severely hampered.

Given this, you’d naturally assume that organizations, and their HR professionals, would be busy dealing with this risk head on. You’d surely expect them to be equipped with the necessary skills and confidence, right?

Well, wrong again.

Stay tuned to hear what organizations do in response to incivility!

Consider this: if we define incivility as `seemingly inconsequential, rude or discourteous words and actions’, it would be utterly logical to assume that its effects on the workplace would be equally inconsequential, right?
Well, wrong!

Indeed, a survey I designed in conjunction with the Canadian HR Reporter magazine (published October 12th , 2011) demonstrates that the exact opposite is true. The data in this survey was the first data of its kind collected here in Canada. And the findings are striking, even shocking.
Have you experienced problems with incivility in your workplace? If so, please stick around for the next few blog entries. I will share with you relevant information extracted from this survey; it will likely be helpful to you in your own role within your organization.
For starters, some stats: 308 Human Resources professionals provided online responses to the questionnaire. 73% of respondents were HR executives, managers and supervisors, another 17% identified themselves as `senior individual contributors’.
The responses covered all Canadian provinces, coast to coast, from organizations ranging in size from one to 5,000+. As to frequency of incivility, most of the respondents relayed that they recieve formal or informal complaints about Incivility (as defined above), on a regular basis, up to 15 times in a six months’ period.
I had the privilege of presenting the survey’s results at the 2011 Health Work and Wellness conference in downtown Toronto on the very day of publication in the HR Reporter. I dare say that the audience was hugely impacted by these findings (and other eye-opening information related to workplace incivility which I was pleased to share).
So please do stick around, more to come next week!