I don’t know about you, but I get totally frustrated when an employee doesn’t follow company policies and procedures! We spend a CRAZY amount of time developing these to make sure our business operates efficiently and legally!
Sound familiar?
Not long ago we struggled getting our staff to follow our policies. We realized that it was tough with such a spread-out team that didn’t get to see each other often, but why were we seeing so many cases of “completely disregarding” our policies – that we had spent to much time on?
What we found was that our staff wasn’t connected with the “why” of “how we do things around here”. We can’t expect all of our staff to have an ownership mentality. We can’t expect them to feel our policies as deeply as we did when we realized we had to write them (or change them or add to them!).
We found a way to address this with our staff in a non-threatening way to bring it back to the WHY we do things the way we do. It has helped them take a step back to identify what happened, what could have resulted, and how it can be avoided in the future.
We are able to take these submitted SAFE forms and use them to structure both our conversations with staff and our future procedures. Remember any time you point a finger at someone else there are three pointing back at you!
Janie founded 4-Legged Kids, Inc in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1997 and provides education through her PetBizHIVE podcast and her PetBizMBA membership and courses. She is a Certified Professional Animal Care Operator, Fear Free certified and a Certified Professional Pet Sitter. Learn more about the Founder, Janie Budnick.