Every year 24/7 Wall St publishes a list of the worst American companies to work for. When compiling this year’s list, 24/7 relied on company ratings compiled by Glassdoor.com, an organization that compiles millions of employee reviews of the companies where they work.

Please note that in our blog post today, we are not going to publish 24/7’s list of companies that are bad places to work. However, we are going to ask . . .

What makes a company a miserable place to work?

According to Scott Dobroski of Glassdoor, “The three top drivers of long-term employee satisfaction are company culture, career opportunities, and trust in senior leadership.”

But as we review the list of negative companies, we notice something important . . .

Many of the problems that make employers “bad” can be prevented or reversed with training

If you read between the lines of what makes these companies so bad to work for, you’ll usually see these underlying issues at work:

• A negative company culture has taken hold. Company leaders micromanage, adopt a “gotcha” culture of blame, fail to develop their people in positive ways . . . and engage in other negative behaviors. Correcting this pattern sometimes requires a major shakeup of upper management. But its hold can also be loosened by taking a few strategic steps, like cultivating positive beliefs about the company during onboarding of new employees.
• Employees lack basic, needed skills. When companies fail to train new hires and current employees on the most basic skills they need to perform their jobs, their frustration quickly builds to the bursting point.
• Micromanaging and lack of autonomy. There is no getting around the reality that some managers are prone to engage in the intrusive supervisory styles that add up to micromanagement. Yet when managers and the people they supervise are trained to understand and use a well-thought-out set of procedures, micromanaging stops happening so often. Again, it is a problem that can be reduced through effective management training.
• Frustrations in dealing with customers and the public. When employees are not trained to work effectively with customers, frustrations rise. When they do not understand company procedures or rules, the same issues occur. Again, many of these problems can be anticipated and prevented with a program of focused, well designed training.
• An unmanageable workload. Some employers pour on so much work that it becomes impossible for workers to do their jobs. But in most cases, worker morale improves through training that makes sure that employees possess the skills and knowledge they need to handle their work quickly and effectively.
• Lack of clear job expectations. This issue seems to underlie problems at many of the “10 worst” companies that are on the 24/7 Wall St list. When employees do not know what is expected of them or how their performance will be evaluated, they feel like they are working in a vacuum. Training sessions, especially during the onboarding process for new hires, can clarify expectations and motivate employees to excel.

Is It Time to Review Your Training?

Is your training working hard enough to combat problems like those in the new year and beyond?