SETTING NON-NEGOTIABLE STAFF STANDARDS

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 a non-negotiable standard and it 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.

About the Author

Noel Peebles. Market Leaders Limited.
http://www.instantsellbusiness.com
http://www.instantsellhome.com

SETTING NON-NEGOTIABLE STAFF STANDARDS

SETTING NON-NEGOTIABLE STAFF STANDARDS

When a person seeks employment with your company, he or she is basically saying, ?I want to work for your company.

When a person seeks employment with your company, he or she is
basically saying, ?I want to work for your company.