Create a kinder, gentler, profitable workplace

Quint Studer

08/16/2009

Consider the things your employees do that you wish they wouldn’t, things that don’t make them bad employees, but that do irritate customers and co-workers.
What are we talking about? Loudly chewing gum, singing during business meetings, aggressive political discourse. You don’t need to grin and bear this inappropriate behavior. Rather, you can legislate good behavior. And a majority of employees will be glad you did.
Most people appreciate having “official guidelines.” They eliminate their own confusion as well as that of their co-workers.
You might assume that, say, knocking before entering someone’s office is a common sense behavior. But it’s not always. For people who grew up in a family with lots of siblings, few bathrooms, and even fewer boundaries, knocking on doors might feel like a needless formality. In other words, common sense is a subjective concept, depending in part on an individual’s background. Still, it’s very important that every employee display behavior that’s consistent with company standards and aligned with desired outcomes.
Here are some things to consider when creating your own behavior standard for the office.
&#8226 Seek input from all employees in creating a Standards of Behavior document. Put together a “Standards Team” to spearhead the initiative and create the first draft. Just be sure that everyone has a chance to review the document and provide input before it’s finalized. Do not have human resources write it and impose it on everyone else.
&#8226 Align desired behaviors with desired outcomes. Before you start writing, take a look at your organization’s long-term goals and areas that need improvement. You must be able to measure the success of your standards by seeing an impact in many of the key metrics of your operation, whether those are increased customer satisfaction, reduced rejects or other measures. &#8226 Be crystal clear and very specific in your wording. Do not write “Display a positive attitude.” Do write “Smile, make eye contact and greet customers by name.” Do not worry about insulting people’s intelligence. Sometimes people really, truly don’t know what is appropriate behavior and what is not, and that includes colloquial language, such as “OK,” “Yeah,” and “Hold on.”
&#8226 Hold a ceremonial Standards of Behavior “roll out.” Once you have finalized your Standards of Behavior document, it’s time to implement it. Hold an employee forum or companywide meeting in which you introduce the standards and distribute pledges for everyone to sign. You may even hold activities designed to educate employees about some of the points. Make it fun. But do have everyone sign a pledge – it is amazing how much more seriously people take rules when they have signed on the dotted line.
&#8226 Hold people accountable when they violate a standard. Make sure all employees know they will be held accountable for the behaviors outlined in the Standards of Behavior document. Then, just do it. The Standards of Behavior pledge gives you something to hold people accountable to. It’s worth implementing for that reason alone.
&#8226 Create a designated “Standard of the Month.” Every month, highlight a specific standard. This will boost awareness of the standards in general and will get people thinking about how that specific one applies to their daily lives. Let’s say, for example, that you decide to focus on your policy for dealing with disgruntled customers. At the beginning of the month, a “reminder” e-mail detailing the policy is sent out. You might hold a companywide forum in which you recruit people to “act out” both sides of a conflict: the disgruntled customer and the employee trying to soothe her. Not only is this fun and often hilarious, it can be a valuable learning tool, as it forces people to see both sides of an issue. &#8226 Update the Standards of Behavior. The standards are dynamic and will need to be updated from time to time. One or two directives may not work as intended and may need to be changed. You may also discover new standards that need to be added as your company grows and evolves. Your Standards of Behavior should be a “living document” that serves your company … not the other way around.
&#8226 Have new applicants sign it right upfront. Before you even interview prospective new employees, have them read and sign your Standards of Behavior. You will be able to eliminate people from the race upfront if they visibly balk at conforming to your corporate culture. But more important, when you do hire someone, there will be no doubt in his mind what you expect of him.
Knowing that a Standards of Behavior document exists – and knowing that their signatures are affixed to a pledge to uphold it – is enough to keep employees on their toes. It creates an extra boost of awareness that affects day-to-day behavior.
Obviously, when overall performance improves, so does the quality of your products and services, the satisfaction level of your customers, and – last but not least – your bottom line.
You may worry that enforcing Standards of Behavior will create a company of robots – a company in which human differences are discouraged in favor of mindless conformity. That is not true. An office unified by agreed-upon standards is a far more pleasant place to work. &#8226

Quint Studer is the author of “Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your Company to the Top.”

PBN Branded Content