A business culture committed to growing and growing from employee engagement shouldn't have to think about discipline.
Or should it?
It should, for sure.
No
entire employee base is perfect, behaves perfectly, or perfectly avoids
mistakes, misbehavior, or misdeeds. While a fully engaged organization
likely has less call for disciplinary actions, it does happen.
Starting today, I offer you the first of 9 Tips to Integrate Discipline into your engagement culture.
Clearly express your business's behavioral expectations…in writing.
The behaviors that are accepted and valued by your business are
fundamental to its culture. The clearer and more continuous you express
elements of your culture, the more readily employees carry them out.
Here are examples of how a company might expect employees to behave:
- Demonstrate respect for colleagues
- Show genuine concern for customers
- Treat suppliers with courtesy
- Utilize equipment and materials with consideration
Clearly express behavioral taboos…in writing.
It's better to pay more attention to the positive than the negative.
Still, the i's aren't dotted and the t's aren't cross if you do not
specify behaviors that are unacceptable. This serves both to inform
employees in advance and to support actions that may have to be taken
after inappropriate behavior.
Clearly express consequences that may follow both types of behavior.
While
neither list of consequences should be viewed as promises, both will
add meaning and substance to the two previous lists. IOW, the
consequences underline "we mean this." Examples of consequences may
include
Positive
- Appreciation from members of your team.
- Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Recognition on performance evaluation.
Negative
- Discussion as less than positive performance.
- Specific disciplinary actions: suspension, exception from year-end bonus.
Come back tomorrow for the next 3 of our 9 Tips to Integrate Discipline into your engagement culture.
Tags: Discipline, Employee Engagement, Management
