10 Reasons Your Staff Are Struggling — And What It Could Be Costing Your Business

Most businesses don’t suddenly develop a staff problem.

It happens gradually.

A previously reliable employee starts making mistakes.

Someone who used to take initiative stops putting their hand up.

Communication becomes harder.

People become irritable with each other.

Sick days creep up.

Managers spend more time dealing with staff issues.

Productivity slips.

And eventually you’re left wondering:

What happened to the team we used to have?

The easy explanation is that people have become lazy, unmotivated or difficult.

Sometimes there genuinely is a performance issue that needs to be managed.

But quite often, what you’re seeing at work is the visible result of something happening underneath.

Stress. Poor communication. Lack of clarity. Conflict. Disengagement. Burnout. Anxiety. Personal difficulties. Trauma. Or simply someone reaching a point where they’re no longer coping as well as they once did.

And when enough people within a business start struggling, it stops being an individual wellbeing problem.

It becomes a business performance problem.

So if your staff aren’t performing the way you know they can, it may be worth looking beyond the surface.

Here are 10 reasons your staff may be struggling, moving from issues that can initially seem relatively minor through to problems that can have a much greater impact on your workforce and business.

10. They Don’t Feel Their Effort Is Being Recognised

This can seem insignificant compared with some of the issues further down this list.

But over time, it matters.

Someone continually meets deadlines, covers for colleagues, helps customers or takes on extra responsibility.

Nothing is said.

Eventually the thinking can change from:

“I want to do a great job.”

to:

“Why am I putting in all this effort?”

Recognition doesn’t mean applauding somebody every time they complete their job.

It means good work doesn’t become invisible.

The consequence may not initially be obvious.

People usually don’t stop working altogether.

They stop giving you the extra 10%.

Less initiative.

Less problem solving.

Less enthusiasm.

Less willingness to go beyond the minimum.

And when that attitude spreads, the culture starts changing with it.

9. They Aren’t Completely Clear About What You Expect From Them

Sometimes what appears to be poor performance is actually poor clarity.

Two managers give different instructions.

Priorities continually change.

Responsibilities overlap.

Nobody knows who has final authority.

The employee is told to “take ownership” but gets criticised when they make a decision independently.

Eventually people become hesitant.

And hesitant employees tend to ask more questions, make slower decisions and take fewer risks.

Before deciding someone isn’t performing, ask:

Do they actually know what excellent performance in their role looks like?

Good employees can’t consistently hit a target that keeps moving.

8. They Don’t Feel Supported

Most employees don’t need constant reassurance.

They do need to know somebody has their back when a genuine problem occurs.

Poor support can look like:

A manager who is never available.

Employees repeatedly asking for resources they don’t receive.

Decisions taking weeks.

Problems being dismissed.

Staff being expected to solve situations they haven’t been trained to handle.

Or a culture where asking for help is interpreted as weakness.

And something interesting happens when people don’t feel supported.

Eventually they stop asking.

Management may think:

“Great — they’re becoming more independent.”

Meanwhile, problems may simply be going underground.

By the time management hears about them, they’re much larger.

7. They Have Too Little Control Over How They Do Their Job

There needs to be accountability in every business.

But there is a difference between managing somebody and controlling every move they make.

If employees have no autonomy, they can gradually stop thinking independently.

Why solve the problem if every decision needs approval?

Why suggest a better way if nobody listens?

Why take ownership if you’re never really allowed to own anything?

Strong management generally sits somewhere between two extremes:

Not enough direction creates chaos.

Too much control kills initiative.

The sweet spot is usually clear expectations, appropriate accountability and enough autonomy for capable people to actually use their capability.

6. Poor Communication Is Creating Problems That Don’t Need to Exist

Communication failures are expensive because they rarely stay communication failures.

Someone doesn’t pass on information.

A manager assumes something was understood.

Feedback isn’t given until frustration has already built.

One department works from different information to another.

An employee knows something isn’t working but doesn’t feel comfortable saying it.

Now you have mistakes.

Rework.

Customer complaints.

Frustration.

Blame.

Conflict.

And wasted management time.

The solution isn’t another email telling everybody:

“We need to communicate better.”

The useful question is:

Why aren’t they communicating properly now?

Are people afraid of conflict?

Does a manager become defensive when challenged?

Is somebody lacking confidence?

Is information unclear?

Are employees overwhelmed?

Or has the culture taught people that keeping quiet is easier?

When you understand the reason, you have something you can actually work with.

5. Conflict Is Starting to Infect the Rest of the Team

Healthy disagreement can improve a business.

Unresolved personal conflict rarely does.

Two employees start clashing.

Soon other people take sides.

Communication becomes passive-aggressive.

Emails unnecessarily include managers.

People avoid working together.

Complaints increase.

Staff meetings become uncomfortable.

And suddenly management is spending hours every week dealing with something that originally involved two people.

The cost becomes much larger than the original disagreement.

Because one unresolved relationship can affect:

Morale. Communication. Productivity. Retention. And the atmosphere of an entire team.

Sometimes businesses wait far too long because they hope:

“They’ll sort it out.”

Sometimes they will.

Sometimes they absolutely won’t.

4. What’s Happening Outside Work Is Coming Through the Door With Them

This is an uncomfortable area for some employers.

Because technically, it might have nothing to do with the business.

An employee may be dealing with:

Relationship breakdown.

Separation.

Grief.

Financial pressure.

A sick family member.

Problems involving their children.

Trauma.

Poor sleep.

Alcohol use.

Anxiety.

Or another deeply personal issue.

The business didn’t create the problem.

But the employee doesn’t become a different human being when they arrive at work.

If somebody has been awake half the night worrying about their marriage, they may not concentrate the same way at 9am.

If somebody is experiencing severe anxiety, their decision-making can change.

If somebody is grieving, their patience and attention may change.

The employer doesn’t need to become the employee’s therapist.

But it can be useful to recognise the difference between:

“This isn’t our responsibility.”

and:

“This is affecting somebody we employ, and there may be a sensible way for us to support them.”

Because helping a good employee through a difficult period may be significantly easier than recruiting and training their replacement.

3. They’ve Mentally Checked Out — But They’re Still Coming to Work

This is one of the easiest problems to miss.

The employee isn’t absent.

They’re sitting at their desk.

They’re answering emails.

They’re doing enough.

But the person who used to contribute ideas has stopped.

The problem solver stops solving problems.

The enthusiastic employee becomes transactional.

They start thinking:

“I’ll just do what I have to do.”

An employee can physically attend work while operating well below their usual capacity.

The business continues paying the full wage.

But it may no longer be receiving anything close to the employee’s full capability.

That can be far less obvious than absenteeism.

And potentially much harder to detect.

2. They’re Burning Out — And You May Not Realise It Yet

Your highest-performing employees aren’t necessarily protected from burnout.

Sometimes they’re the people who can hide it the longest.

They keep delivering.

They keep saying yes.

They take work home.

They answer messages at night.

They solve everybody else’s problems.

Management thinks:

“They’re amazing under pressure.”

Until something changes.

Their patience gets shorter.

Their enthusiasm disappears.

They become cynical.

Concentration slips.

They can’t switch off.

Small problems feel enormous.

They start making unusual mistakes.

Then comes the sick leave.

Or the resignation.

One of the most dangerous assumptions a business can make is:

“They haven’t complained, so they must be coping.”

High functioning does not always mean coping.

1. Their Mental Health Is Now Affecting Their Ability to Function

This is where the issue can become significantly more serious.

Someone may be experiencing:

Anxiety.

Depression.

Trauma.

Panic.

Severe stress.

Sleep disturbance.

Emotional dysregulation.

Addictive behaviours.

Or another psychological difficulty that is beginning to affect how they function day to day.

At this point you may start noticing changes across several areas at once:

Concentration.

Confidence.

Communication.

Decision-making.

Attendance.

Relationships.

Emotional reactions.

Productivity.

Motivation.

And sometimes safety.

This isn’t simply somebody needing to “toughen up”.

Nor does it mean every workplace performance issue should be turned into a mental health diagnosis.

It means businesses need to become better at asking:

What is actually stopping this person from performing the way they normally can?

The Real Problem: Businesses Often Treat the Symptom

Think about what usually happens.

Someone becomes less productive.

Push harder.

Someone lacks confidence.

Send them on a leadership course.

Two staff members aren’t communicating.

Tell them to communicate.

Someone is overwhelmed.

Teach them time management.

An employee is constantly stressed.

Give them a wellbeing app.

Sometimes these things help.

But what if the behaviour you’re trying to change isn’t actually the problem?

What if it’s the result of the problem?

That’s where a more targeted approach becomes interesting.

Your Staff Don’t All Have the Same Problem — So Why Give Them the Same Solution?

This is one of the major limitations of generic workplace wellbeing programs.

Twenty employees attend the same stress-management presentation.

But amongst those twenty people:

One may be experiencing anxiety.

One is going through a divorce.

One is terrified of speaking in meetings.

One is drinking too much every night.

One can’t sleep.

One is still affected by a previous workplace trauma.

One has completely lost confidence after being promoted.

One can’t control their anger.

One is dealing with grief.

And another may simply be exhausted because the business has placed an unrealistic workload on them.

Those are not the same problem.

So they probably shouldn’t receive exactly the same intervention.

A More Targeted Way to Improve Staff Performance

This is where Get Right Therapy’s Corporate Performance and Workplace Support approach is different.

Rather than giving your entire workforce another generic presentation and hoping something sticks, the objective is to identify what is actually getting in the way of the individual employee.

Then the intervention can be matched to that problem.

That may involve:

Clinical Hypnotherapy

EMDR

NLP

Professional and Performance Coaching

depending on the individual and what is driving the difficulty.

The aim isn’t simply to make somebody feel better for an hour.

It’s to work on the barriers affecting how they think, respond, communicate and perform.

Coaching Can Show Someone What to Do. Sometimes We Also Need to Work on What Stops Them Doing It.

This distinction is important.

An employee may already know:

“I shouldn’t panic when presenting.”

“I need to speak up.”

“I need to stop taking everything personally.”

“I shouldn’t bring work home mentally.”

“I know I’m capable.”

“I need to stop reacting so strongly.”

Consciously, they understand the solution.

But their automatic response keeps taking over.

This is where I use Clinical Hypnotherapy differently from traditional performance coaching.

Coaching can help establish the behaviours, strategies and outcomes we want.

Hypnotherapy can then be used to work with the automatic or subconscious associations and learned responses that may be making those changes difficult.

Rather than relying solely on an employee consciously reminding themselves what they’re supposed to do every time pressure appears, the aim is to help reinforce healthier responses at a deeper, more automatic level.

It may be confidence under pressure.

Remaining calm when challenged.

Speaking up without immediately fearing judgement.

Leaving work mentally when the day is finished.

Responding rather than reacting.

Trusting their judgement.

Or feeling capable again after an experience that knocked their confidence.

Used appropriately, hypnosis can help reinforce successful patterns at a deeper subconscious level so the desired response can become more natural rather than something the employee has to consciously force every time.

That is what can make the work considerably more targeted.

Imagine Addressing the Actual Barrier — Employee by Employee

For one staff member, improved performance may mean reducing anxiety.

For another, it’s confidence.

For another, communication.

Another may need trauma work using EMDR.

Someone else needs strategies for anger and emotional regulation.

Another employee needs support getting through a major personal crisis without losing their ability to function professionally.

For a senior manager, it might be learning to switch off instead of carrying the business mentally 24 hours a day.

And for another employee, the intervention may be helping them break a behaviour such as smoking, vaping or problematic alcohol use that is affecting their wider wellbeing.

Different problem.

Different person.

Different intervention.

But the broader business objective is the same:

Remove as many of the barriers to good performance as reasonably possible.

What Could That Mean for the Business?

When you help the individual function better, the potential benefits don’t stop with that individual.

Improved confidence can affect communication.

Better communication can reduce conflict.

Reduced stress can improve concentration.

Better emotional regulation can improve team relationships.

Improved sleep can affect energy and decision-making.

Resolving an underlying issue may improve attendance.

Supporting someone before they reach breaking point may improve retention.

And when enough people start operating closer to their best, you begin influencing something much bigger:

The performance of the organisation itself.

This is why employee wellbeing and workplace performance shouldn’t always be treated as two separate conversations.

They often intersect.

This Doesn’t Replace Good Management

There is an important distinction.

If employees are struggling because workloads are unreasonable, bullying is occurring, expectations are unclear or management practices are creating problems, the solution isn’t to send everybody to therapy so they can tolerate the problem better.

The business needs to address the workplace issue.

Individual support should sit alongside good management and workplace safety practices — not replace them.

But equally, fixing an organisational issue doesn’t automatically address every individual difficulty an employee is experiencing.

That’s why the strongest approach can involve both.

Improve the workplace where the workplace needs improving.

Support the individual where the individual needs support.

A Targeted Workforce Performance Solution

A business can use Get Right Therapy as an additional confidential support pathway for staff.

Rather than waiting until someone is on extended leave, resigning, involved in disciplinary action or completely burnt out, support can be offered earlier.

The process can remain simple:

Identify. Refer. Target. Support. Reinforce.

Identify the employee who is struggling.

Refer them confidentially for individual support.

Identify what is actually driving the problem.

Choose an appropriate approach — Clinical Hypnotherapy, EMDR, NLP, Coaching or a combination.

Work on the conscious strategies and the deeper automatic or subconscious responses that may be keeping the problem going.

Then reinforce the changes so the employee can begin applying them more naturally in their work and everyday life.

Individual clinical information remains private.

The business doesn’t need the details of somebody’s therapy.

What it needs is a pathway for employees to receive appropriate support when something is getting in the way of them functioning at their best.

Don’t Wait Until Your Best Employee Becomes Your Next Resignation

Sometimes businesses invest enormous amounts of money replacing people they could potentially have helped.

Recruitment.

Advertising.

Interviews.

Onboarding.

Training.

Lost knowledge.

Reduced productivity while the new employee gets up to speed.

Extra pressure on everybody else while the position remains vacant.

There will always be situations where an employee needs to leave.

But there are also situations where a previously excellent employee simply needed the right support at the right time.

And that is worth considering before the problem reaches crisis point.

Want to Lift the Overall Performance of Your Team?

If you’re a business owner, director, manager, HR professional or People & Culture leader and you’re seeing stress, burnout, anxiety, conflict, confidence issues or personal difficulties starting to affect the performance of your workforce, let’s talk.

At Get Right Therapy, we provide targeted individual support designed around the actual issue affecting the employee rather than assuming everybody needs the same solution.

Using Clinical Hypnotherapy, EMDR, NLP and Professional Coaching, we can work not only on the practical behaviours an employee wants to change, but also on some of the deeper automatic and subconscious patterns that may be making that change difficult.

The objective is broader than simply “employee wellbeing”.

It is helping your people:

Think better.
Communicate better.
Manage pressure better.
Respond better.
Perform better.

And ultimately contribute to a stronger-performing workplace.

Sessions can be provided online Australia-wide, making confidential support accessible to employees regardless of location, with Brisbane-based options also available.

If your business has good people who aren’t currently performing like the people you hired, there may be more you can do than simply push them harder.

Find out what’s getting in the way — and work on that.

Call Michael at Get Right Therapy on 0422 068 020 to discuss a targeted workplace support solution for your business.

Or visit www.getrighttherapy.com.au/corporateperformance

Better business performance starts with people who are able to perform at their best.