As if employees didn't have enough to worry about, what with massive layoffs making headlines pretty much daily.  Now a researcher at the University of New Hampshire is warning workers to watch their backs to avoid being unfairly tagged "it" in a blame game.

With the economic downturn as the catalyst, says Paul Harvey, assistant professor of management at UNH's Whittemore School of Business and Economics, employees may be more prone to blame someone else for problems they've caused.  He says this is bad when it occurs among employees, but when it stems from a supervisor or manager who wants to avoid blame, it takes on a new dimension that can ultimately hurt the business via things like:

• emotional stress and strain on employees
• reduced performance levels
• potential for increased turnover

So how can small and midsize organizations refocus their employee engagement best practices to avoid this outcome?  One tactic that our consulting and training director, Diane Stoneman, suggested in a webinar we held today that reviewed some of the exemplary business practices of our 2008 Top Small Workplaces is to devote a bigger piece of your training and development pie to ensuring that front-line managers, especially, are living the company values and, most importantly, treating those they supervise with respect.  Whether it's good behavior that should be reinforced, or bad behavior that should be avoided, she said front-line managers are often key to making or breaking a firm's morale and productivity.

In fact, one of the 9 themes that we identified among our 15 winning firms this year that made them stand out among the over 400 applicants was that they have created and systematized processes that call for, if not depend on, employee engagement to help run the business.

You can see how this theme was laid out in our webinar today by accessing the links below.  The first one is the slides that fit this theme; the second is audio featuring Diane giving examples from two of the winning businesses, and our Executive Director, Mary Corbitt Clark, discussing more about these firms' employee engagement activities, including her answer to the question, "Why do it?"

Webinar slides (ppt) - 215 KB

Webinar audio (mp3) - 4.34 MB - 4:44

For more best practices on maintaining strong morale and productivity in tough times, we have an early Christmas present for you in the form of another, upcoming live webinar on this topic on December 10.  It will feature Bill Brett, President of Barclay Water Management, a Massachusetts-based water treatment company that boasts the lowest associate turnover rate among major firms in their industry.

Are your workplace team building initiatives set up to guard against "the blame game"?  How so?