How do I deal with chatty employee?

Dear Caroline, 
One of my employees is overly talkative which leads to a lot of slacking off work and consequently low productivity. I have cautioned her about this before but she seems unable to control herself.

How do I stop this before it permeates the workplace culture without destroying the element of socialisation and teamwork necessary for good morale? Gerald

Hello Gerald,
Employees chatting with each other is essential for building teamwork and morale. However, if an employee is overly talkative, that can become a problem, particularly if it is impacting their productivity or the productivity of others. This can be incredibly challenging if you have already spoken to her, but she continues to behave in this way.  

Before deciding what to do about the problem, you must understand its root cause. Is it that she doesn’t have enough work and so is chatting to people because she is bored? Or does she have work but does not prioritise it over talking to people?

You may be able to determine the cause yourself, but it could also be beneficial to discuss this with the employee. Arrange a private meeting with her and inform her that you have not seen enough change in the behaviour following your previous conversations. Ask her what she thinks may be causing her to spend so much time talking with her co-workers.

As well as discussing the causes of her behaviour, she must understand the impact of her actions on her productivity, the productivity of her co-workers, and the organisation. Once you have established the cause and impact of her chattiness, agree on how to proceed, moving forward. It may be helpful to focus on setting clear objectives. If an employee knows that they must be at work from 9-5 but do not have clear deadlines to be working towards, it can be tempting to procrastinate and talk to people instead of working.

Establish specific goals that they can be working towards to ensure productivity. Ask them what they think would help and work together to create a plan of action. Finally, be clear about the consequences if their actions don’t change and arrange a follow-up meeting to discuss their progress.

If, by the time you have a follow-up meeting, they have improved, make sure you recognise that and thank them. However, if they have not, you may need to establish stricter consequences if the behaviour does not improve by a specific time.

Caroline Mboijana, Managing Director, The Leadership Team (U) - [email protected]