The other way around..

This is the other way around.

When a person seeks employment with a company, he or she is basically means that he or she wants to work for the company. By this the person assures that he or she will give up doing whatever he or she please, show up for work and behave the way the company wants it to behave, so long as the company pays in exchange.

Now, that leads to the opportunity for the employer to set standards of behavior that are non-negotiable. Setting standards doesn’t mean that the creativity of the employees will be lost. After all, it is highly significant for the employees to have some flexibility and to project their own personality into their job. Keeping in mind the above said; it is also a good idea for the company to be inflexible with some things. In other words set some non-negotiable standards.

We can see that it is no way different from our diurnal lives. The Society of which we are part of has rules. Imagine, for example, if there were no traffic rules or road signs or laws to guide us on how to behave, develop our values, beliefs. Imagine if there were no rules in sport and the games we play. Everything would be in shambles.

This could be accounted to the fact that most of us like to know our boundaries or limits, because that way we know what we can and can't do. For breaking a law we get fined or arrested. Similarly, if we don't play fairly in sport we get penalized in some way. Thus, we are used to non-negotiable standards.

Accordingly, there shouldn’t be any difference in applying it for running businesses. It is a necessity for smooth functioning of any business to have rules and policy. There could be always be some instances when the employees may not agree with a few of the policies, they can and usually will comply.

For explaining this we can take the example of coming to office in formal attire. All the employees are required to wear them - that is non-negotiable. However, it isn't quite like being in the military. There are various acceptable combinations, so that they could adjust the clothes to suit their own personality.

Here's the deal: It was a non-negotiable standard that the employees are required to dress in a proper way. Furthermore, it needed to be within the agreed guidelines using any one of the approved combinations. Anything else is unacceptable. Now, that's not unreasonable.

I feel that, for setting the non-negotiable standards, it is important to put the policies in writing. However, verbal instructions will be necessary on certain occasions it is much easier to hold people accountable for something that is written.

Finally, it is of utmost importance to ensure that employees have the full knowledge and fully understand the meaning of the non-negotiable standards. It is indeed needed that they are thoroughly trained on what is required to be done or how to handle a particular situation.

Although it might sound very disciplined to set non-negotiable standards, it is really required in running a business efficiently. However, in no way the standards should stop the employees from having a lot of fun and deriving a lot of pleasure in what they do. Besides, the employees will try hard to please and it is their right to know what's required of them and their boundaries.