Corporate Standards of Behavior

Studer Group: Be crystal clear and very specific in your wording. Don’t write “Display a positive attitude.” Do
write “Smile, make eye contact, and greet customers by name.” Don’t
worry about insulting people’s intelligence. Sometimes people really,
truly don’t know what is appropriate behavior and what isn’t. For
instance, if you don’t want common “slang” phrases used with customers,
you need to identify them right up front. One Standards of Behavior
document created by a Studer client contains the phone etiquette
directive: Avoid phrases like “OK,” “Yeah,” “Hold on,” “Honey,” and “See ya.”


Unfortunately, it is very true that some people do not know what appropriate behavior looks like. Think of the chasm between the boomers and the millennials. What may seem completely intuitive to a Gen X employee may be completely foreign to a millennial.


Studer Group: Hold people accountable when they violate a standard. Make
sure all employees know they’ll be held accountable for the behaviors
outlined in the Standards of Behavior document. Then, just do it. How
you hold them accountable is up to you. Sometimes a simple meeting in
which you show an employee the signed pledge and point out her error is
sufficient. Other times, you might need to write her up or take more
drastic disciplinary measures. But one thing is clear: the Standards of
Behavior pledge gives you something to hold people accountable to. It’s worth implementing for that reason alone.

I agree totally with this point. There is a lack of accountability in corporate America that has become a standard in its own right. If employees sign an agreement, they are making a commitment. If they do not take it serously, they need to be dealt with seriously.

Studer Group: Walk the talk.
Senior leaders need to role model compliance with standards. If the
executive are texting or responding to e-mails during meetings, why
should they expect others to turn off electronic devices!

Well, as I have already commented, I have a hard time seeing this actually happen. This is raising the bar high, but is it out of reach? I would ask the question, why are leaders respoding to emails? My experience has been that people start multitasking in meetings that are poorly run and more often when people are required to attend that have absolutley nothing to contribute. Although this is just an example to support “walking the talk,” you should consider solving the problem before legislating. I would suggest reviewing your standards with an eye on those behaviors that are symptoms.

Studer Group: 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. Next, you might ask employees to write up
real-life or hypothetical scenarios in which they must deal with angry
or dissatisfied customers. Finally, 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.

I understand where Studer is going with this, but again I do not think this would work in the “real” world. Many people would simply not attend. The Millenials would probably find this completely intolerable.

I think the Studer Group has some great insight into fixing bad corpoate behavior. I just wonder who has implemented these tips and seen success. I would love to hear from someone.