You’ve had your eye on a certain employee for a little while now. Why? Because you’ve noticed something different about them. 

Their work has been slipping. They seem more quiet and withdrawn than usual. They’ve had a few more days off than you’ve ever seen them take before. 

All in all, you’re starting to get a bit concerned. You want to know they’re capable of doing their job, of course, but you also just want to know that they’re doing OK. Even as their boss, you respect them, care about them, and you want to do whatever you can to help them.

And when you have concerns like these about an employee, there’s a few different things you can do.

Reach Out

It’s the first step to take, always, but it’s also one of the most challenging. After all, you don’t want to cross any lines here, and you certainly don’t want to make your employee feel like you’re pulling them in for a critical chat. 

You simply want to talk to them about what’s going on, and if there’s anything you can do as their boss to make things easier for them. Getting this across, however, is a delicate matter. 

Be sure to do so via a normal, accessible channel, such as a work email address. If nothing else, you want to be sure your efforts to reach out are clearly documented, in case of any hearings that may come up in future. 

Work with HR

If you’re concerned about an employee’s conduct over the long term, you’ll need to talk to your HR department. See if anyone else has raised any concerns over your employee’s behavior within the workplace, such as comments they might have made, emotional outbursts they may have had, etc. 

If you’re already in the throes of an investigation into your employee’s potential misconduct, this is where you’ll want to make use of eDiscovery Solutions to uncover as much of the picture as possible. 

After all, you’ll be combing through emails, work documents, as well as one to one messages via various apps, and you need to be sure you have as much clear evidence to go over as possible. 

Getting this full picture can get you to the heart of the matter much sooner, and make it easier to approach a constructive conversation.

Ask Them What They Need

That’s key with a boss to employee interaction like this. You need to give them the space to be clear about their own needs, and to feel like they can be honest about what would really help them. 

Even if it was a reduction in work hours or some more time off, they need to be able to say that they need these things. If they can’t, you can’t possibly work together toward a satisfying solution for everyone. 

When you’re concerned about an employee, reach out, align with HR, and make sure your employee can lead the conversation when they need to.