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Setting_Non Negotiable_Staff_Standards
| Setting Non-Negotiable Staff Standards
SETTING NON-NEGOTIABLE STAFF STANDARDS By Noel Peebles When a
person seeks employment with your company, he or she is
basically saying, “I want to work for your company.” What this
really means is “I will give up doing whatever I please, show up
for work and behave the way you want me to behave, so long as
you pay me in exchange.” Now, that gives you the employer, the
opportunity to set some standards of behavior that are
non-negotiable. That doesn’t mean you are taking away any
creativity from your employees. After all, it is important for
staff members to have some flexibility and to project their own
personality into their job. With that said; it is also a good
idea for the employer to be inflexible with some things. In
other words set non-negotiable standards. This is no different
from every day life. Society has rules. Imagine, for example, if
there were no road signs or laws to guide us on how to behave.
Imagine if there were no rules in sport… it would be a shambles,
right? The truth is, most of us like to know our boundaries,
because that way we know what we can and can’t do. If we break
the law we get fined or arrested. If we don’t play fairly in
sport we get penalized in some way. We are use to non-negotiable
standards. Why should it be any different when running a
business? It shouldn’t! To run smoothly, every business needs
rules and policy. Although staff members may not always agree
with the policy, they can and usually will comply. I will give
you a couple of examples of what I mean - When I ran my retail
stores I had a staff uniform designed. Staff members were
required to wear the uniform – that was non-negotiable. However,
it wasn’t quite like being in the military. There were various
acceptable combinations, so the staff could adjust the uniform
to suit their own personality. Here’s the deal: It was a
non-negotiable standard that staff members were required to wear
the uniform. Furthermore, it needed to be within the agreed
guidelines using any one of the approved combinations. Anything
else was unacceptable. Now, that's not unreasonable. Another
example was the handling of money. Banknotes were required to be
put into the cash registers in the correct compartments and all
facing in the same direction. I had worked out that it took the
same amount of time, to put the money away in a tidy order, as
it did to shove it in any old way. This kept the cash registers
tidy and made counting the money much easier. This was another
non-negotiable standard that worked well. I’ll give you yet
another example. As anyone in retailing will know, meeting and
greeting customers is critical. If you ask, “can I help you”,
the inevitable response is “no thank you, I’m just looking.” So
why ask a question that you know will get a predictably negative
response. The answer is you shouldn’t! So, one of my
non-negotiable standards was that staff members never, never,
ever asked, “can I help you.” Instead staff members were given
intensive training on exactly how to meet and greet customers.
They were given lots of ideas and the flexibility to inject
their own personality into what they said. When greeting a
customer, staff members were encouraged to begin by talking
about anything except making a sale. They could comment on the
weather, something happening outside the store, the fashionable
coat the customer was wearing… anything except making a sale.
The reason for this was simple. The first objective was to
always try to relax the customer before attempting to make a
sale. So “can I help you” was a definite “NO-NO”. I believe
that, in setting non-negotiable standards, it is important to
put the policies in writing. Although verbal instruction will be
necessary on occasion, it is much easier to hold people
accountable for something that is written. Finally, it is really
important to ensure that employees know and fully understand the
meaning of the non-negotiable standards. They need to be
thoroughly trained on what’s required, or how to do the
particular task. I’m a strong believer in asking people “do you
understand” and in some cases following up with “show me.” This
way there can be no misunderstanding as to exactly what’s
required. Although setting non-negotiable standards might sound
very disciplined, it is really about running a business at
maximum efficiency. And, in no way should that stop everyone
from having a lot of fun. Besides, most employees will try hard
to please... and they have a right to know what’s required of
them and their boundaries. © Noel Peebles. Market Leaders
Limited. http://www.instantsellbusiness.com
http://www.instantsellhome.com
NOTE: The following information must be included if you reprint
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About the author:
Noel Peebles runs his own direct marketing and internet company,
supplying marketing and management solutions for small
businesses.
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