HOW A SAFETY OFFICER DEALS WITH TROUBLED EMPLOYEES

HOW A SAFETY OFFICER DEALS WITH TROUBLED EMPLOYEES
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Introduction
A safety officer is that person in the work place who takes care of the well being of other employees in the work place. If an employee is going through hard times or is not performing well in an organization, the head of that department may forward him to the safety officer to help him perform better in his work. Among the challenges in his work, a safety officer has to deal with a troubled employee. This paper looks at how the officer deals with this challenge.
Since this task is aimed at achieving a change in the overall performance of these employee. It takes a process to solve the problem. This requires the involvement of the individual and he or she must be willing to co-operate with the safety officer to achieve results. The employee must be free enough to explain his or her trouble to the officer and also put complete trust in the safety officer. The safety officer on the other hand should be a confidential person who does not breach the trust employees have in him.
Once the problem has come to his attention the safety officer observes and takes note of the dramatic changes on the employee’s performance and job behavior. With this the safety aims at establishing the nature of the trouble and how it has taken effect on the employees work life. This will entail taking note of sudden absenteeism or reporting late to work, a sudden drop of performance, unexplained enthusiasm in his/her work. Some other employees even take more time at work than is usual with a developed tendency to leave for home late.
Once the safety officer has identified all these factors he may summon the troubled employee talks. While having the talk with the employee the officer tries to establish the nature of the trouble. PENN Behavioral Changes, (2008) identifies two types of troubles faced by employees; job related troubles and personal troubles.
Job related troubles can be solved within the working place. They may be troubles like an overload of work in the employees department, very difficult and challenging tasks set by the boss or even lack of motivation and inspiration. Once the safety officer has identified these problems he may channel the suggested solutions to the relevant and concerned departments so that the troubled employee can be assisted. For instance the safety officer may recommend that the department relinquishes some of the duties assigned to the individual, or even suggest that the individual takes some time off work. He may as well recommend a salary increase to the human resource department.
Personal troubles also affect the performance of employees in work place. If the safety officer identifies such problems from a troubled employee, the officer can discuss possible solutions with the employee. He should however a...