Q. "How do we help employees who don’t get along to work well together?"
Answer:
Unfriendly co-workers is a challenging scenario, but here are several steps you can take to improve the situation:
Investigate the cause or causes of conflict. Speak to employees involved and try to understand the cause of the tension. Is it a personality clash, misunderstanding, or difference in working style?
Encourage employees to communicate. Facilitate a conversation to help them understand what open communication looks like or sign them up for continuing education in effective communication.
Set clear expectations for behavior and performance. Create a shared vision for the team and encourage everyone to work towards that common goal. Employees don’t need to be friends, but do need to be professional in the workplace.
Lead by example. Model open communication and positive conflict resolution with your teams and peers.
Follow up to ensure the solution is working and expectations are being met.
If one or more employees continues to not meet behavioral and performance expectations, it would be appropriate to discipline them, up to and including termination.