In previous blogs, we’ve covered the importance of creating an excellent staff experience to attract new staff and keep the ones you have. We also went over the fact that desperation and compromise in hiring will eventually kill that StaffX that you’ve worked so hard to create, as your team becomes polluted with hires who perform with lower standards.
The real problem is that some people have lowered their working standards throughout the pandemic. Here at SELLability, we’ve witnessed this ourselves with companies that are having increasing trouble finding competent staff. Locally we’ve even seen fast food restaurants having difficulty manning up their stores. As noted in our last blog, companies can become desperate and lower their standards to hire anyone who will take the job.
It’s Up to Us
It’s an issue that, right at the moment, is sweeping through the whole society. Job market standards are being lowered so that hiring can occur. But doing so only results in a lower standard throughout the business community—a new, lower standard. This results in bad service and faulty and imperfect products becoming more and more common.
How do we solve it? How do we get those standards raised back up again?
As President Harry S. Truman once famously said, “The buck stops here.” In other words, it’s up to us businesspeople who know better to
a) set a firm standard
b) hold that standard, and
c) make personnel come up to that standard.
The business community must unite and say, “No! We’re only accepting a top standard!”
Enforce Standards
Set standards and make it so that your employees have no choice but to adhere to them. As examples:
- Stick to the company schedule and be on time for work every day. This isn’t a difficult one to stick to, and if they violate it a certain number of times, they’re gone. Let’s face it if a person doesn’t care enough to make it to work on time, how valuable can they be?
- Dress professionally. Many companies have a dress code. A person should care enough to wear appropriate attire for the business, not torn jeans or something they’d wear slacking around the house.
- Do your job professionally. An employee should be proud enough to want to produce decent products or services from their position.
- Follow safety rules. Many companies, especially warehouses or storage operations, have rules governing safety. Employees should have no problem caring for their own and others’ safety.
Insist—And It Will Spread
Those of us who really care about the rest of society need to create meaningful standards. But beyond that, we need to lead with those standards and insist that all of our teams rise up and meet them.
If we do so, this example will spread through the business world, and we will once again have meaningful standards that are commonplace!
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