How to Set Employee Expectations

I was consulting with one of my small business clients last week and she explained to me how some of her new employees “just didn’t get it”. Didn’t get what?, I asked.

She replied, “one of my employees comes to work late on a regular basis”. She added, “just  the other day I looked at the clock at it’s eight minutes past 8:30 a.m., and here comes this employee waltzing into the office”.

“I asked him why he is late and his response was, “ I got here at 8:30 a.m.”. As it was revealed the employee had pulled into the parking lot at 8:30, but, by the time he finished listening to his booming music on his radio’s super sound system, drinking the rest of his super sized soft drink and eating his bag of taco chips, it was several minutes later that he actually arrived at his work station. As far as he was concerned, since he was in the parking lot by 8:30 a.m., he was “on time”.

One of the biggest mistakes I see business owners making today is that they do not have a good orientation program for new employees.

Do your employees understand how they are expected to perform? How do you, as a business owner or manager, know? Many times, the reason for employees not performing properly is because they do not fully understand how they are supposed to behave.

They don’t know what they can do and what they can’t do. Often, an employee will find out what he or she is not supposed to do only after it’s done.

The reason the employee didn’t know is because the company or organization failed to inform him or her. Improperly repri­manding employees for something that was not properly ex­plained to them can be a real de-motivator.

One way to prevent this predicament from occurring is to have a structured orientation for all new employees. Explain to them that the only dumb question is the one that is not asked. Your job is to make sure that they understand and are able to meet their job requirements.

That leads us to the next question. Are your employees able to perform as expected?

Even though employees understand what they are supposed to do, doesn’t mean they can perform at an acceptable level. A greeter at a restaurant needs to be a people-oriented person, able to interact effectively with the customers who come through the door. Even though job responsibilities are understood, if that person acts shy and introverted, it’s likely that he or she will fail miserably in that particular position.

If you have an employee who is expected to do inventory and he or she has trouble doing basic math, you could be in for a disappointing job performance. My suggestion is to screen your applicants carefully.

Here are some questions to help you insure your employees know what is expected of them:

1. Do you provide an orientation session for all new employ­ees?

2. Ask your present employees for suggestions on how to improve it.

3. Make a list of performance requirements for each job. Make sure your employees understand them.

4. Stress the importance of being able to perform as expected.

– Tom