What is on task Behaviour?

Work behavior refers to the activities employees perform to fulfill the responsibilities and goals of their roles. Examples include working together with employees from another department to complete a project and preparing a to-do list for submitting a report at the end of the month.

What is the difference between work attitude and work behavior?

Work behavior is action-based – how an employee does their job and accomplishes their tasks. Work attitude, on the other hand, focuses on thoughts and feelings – how an employee feels about various aspects of their job, including the work they do, their relationships with co-workers and managers, and their perceptions of the company they work for.

Attitudes drive certain work behaviors both for the better and for the worse. For example, an employee with a positive work attitude is more likely to invest more time and energy into a project, leading to better performance. They may form stronger friendships at work, be more welcoming to new team members, and motivate others to perform as a result of their attitude. Meanwhile, an employee with a negative work attitude, who feels unfulfilled, underappreciated, or otherwise dissatisfied with their job, may exhibit behaviors such as lack of attention to detail, harsh or excessive criticism, absenteeism, and more, to the point that they may even drag down the performance of the entire department.

Why is it important to understand work Behaviour?

Understanding your employees’ work behaviour is essential to knowing ways to enhance your business operations, work culture and employer brand.

The way team members work and interact with each other  ultimately impacts the company's bottom line  . In general, positive, professional behavior  boosts productivity and company status  , while poor, unprofessional behavior hinders growth.

A successful organization needs employees who are not only skilled and well trained, but who also perform roles that match their strengths and weaknesses. Each role requires unique qualities; when the right individuals are placed in the right roles where their work behaviors are beneficial, employees can engage in their work more easily and effectively. Assessing work behaviors can help employers understand what types of people they should hire for specific positions.

What are the 4 key work behaviors to understand?

 There are  four main types of work behavior to track. Each type plays a role in why an employee behaves the way he or she does in the workplace.

By understanding each, you can gain more insight into your team members’ behavior and, more importantly, you can identify how and where to initiate effective organizational change.

1. Execution of work

Job performance focuses on how well an employee performs his or her job duties. Employers can assess the quality and quantity of an employee's work to evaluate his or her overall performance.

job performance forecast

What affects an employee's performance?

• Cognitive abilities:  Abilities such as logical reasoning and verbal, calculative, and analytical skills can determine how successful a person will be in achieving the goals of a given task.
• Interpersonal relationships:  When employees feel supported and treated fairly by their managers and team members, they are able to perform better.
• Stress:  With adequate support and resources, stress can help complete projects, while unproductive stress, or pressure without support and direction, leads to exhaustion, poor output and quality, etc.
• Attitudes towards work:  Positive or negative attitudes towards work influence behaviour, and this also applies to the attitudes and behaviour of other employees. An employee's feelings or the emotions he is exposed to directly affect his work output.

2. Organizational citizenship

While job performance focuses on execution, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) focus on voluntary behaviors. Employees perform these voluntary behaviors to help people and the company.

Some OCBs that an employee might display include:

• Helping a team member understand an assignment
• Making suggestions to management to improve workflow processes
• Participating in cultural initiatives

Predictors of organizational citizenship

Organizational citizenship behaviors are rooted in motivation. Where do employees find the motivation to engage in their work and actively contribute to company-wide growth? Some answers include:

• Interpersonal relationships:  Good relationships with managers and co-workers promote a safe and positive work environment, where employees feel empowered to volunteer and help those around them.
• Work attitude:  When employees feel motivated by the company's mission and aligned with its values, they are more likely to display OCB.
• Age and tenure:  Depth of experience may motivate employees to display OCBs more often, as they feel they have more to contribute.
• Personality:  The tendency to display OCBs more frequently  is also  associated with extroverted or conscientious personality traits.

3. Absence

Absenteeism looks at the frequency of absences at work. An employee's absenteeism may indicate what kinds of changes an employer should make to their role. For example, if an employee is frequently absent due to family obligations, you may want to offer them flexible work options (e.g., remote/hybrid structure or different work hours) to help them adequately fulfill their job responsibilities.

Absenteeism forecasts

Disengagement from their role, illness, family matters, and holidays are all potential reasons why team members may be absent:

• Health:  Employees may fall ill, which will make them unable to work.
• Work-life balance:  Family responsibilities may create situations in which an employee must be absent from work.
• Negative attitude:  If employees feel disengaged at work and do not like their jobs, they may be absent more often than employees who do not feel disengaged at work.
• Age:  Younger workers  have higher rates of absenteeism from the workplace  than older workers.

4. Turnover

Turnover refers to how often employees leave the company and are replaced by new people. Higher than expected turnover can harm your organization's overall performance and productivity, and put more pressure on those who remain. Too little turnover can also be detrimental, as teams develop group-think attitudes and become highly resistant to change or new ideas.

Turnover forecasts

The following factors   can affect turnover rates :

• Compensation:  People who feel they are not being fairly compensated may be more inclined to leave their organization, and excessively high compensation may deter unhappy, disengaged employees from leaving the organization.
• Poor health at work:  People who are dissatisfied or feel overlooked at work often look for opportunities elsewhere.
• Stress:  Roles that create high levels of stress lead people to look for another job. On the other hand, a workplace that offers no challenge promotes complacency.
• Age and tenure:  Younger employees whose lives and careers are rapidly evolving have fewer practical ties to a company, while dependents have individuals to support. Additionally, without effective onboarding, new employees are also at risk of turnover due to stress caused by a lack of direction and support.

How does personality affect work Behaviour?

Personality can play a role in work behavior and career success. Personality is complex and includes a person's thought, emotional, and behavioral patterns, and it can influence how we approach our work.

Understanding an employee's personality can help leaders better guide their employees or change roles in ways that highlight and develop employees' strengths.

Psychologists who study the differences between individuals' personalities often divide a personality into five major traits, or  the Big Five  . Understanding where an employee falls on the spectrum of each trait can help employers predict the most appropriate roles and support structures for employees:

1. Openness:  Openness looks at how curious, creative and appreciative an employee is of new ideas, and how resistant they are to change.
2. Conscientiousness:  This trait focuses on how careful and thoughtful someone is in completing their work.
3. Extraversion:  Extraversion measures a person's sociability and sociability.
4. Agreeableness:  Agreeableness is the level at which a person tends to get along with others and show compassion, or to be calculating and critical.
5. Neuroticism:  This trait looks at how likely a person is to be confident and assertive, or sensitive and anxious, under stress.

It's also important to remember that personalities aren't set in stone - for example, someone may seem cautious in a particular situation, but that doesn't mean they will always be resistant to change or have a cautious personality. Additionally, any of these traits can be a weakness, a strength, or completely neutral depending on the context of the situation.