Just Do It! Please!!!

How many times do you want to shout this phrase, most likely without the courtesy?  I’ve had many conversations with pet center operators and a common frustration seems to be getting staff to follow procedures, complete checklists, and even read important instructions.  Achieving excellence requires that staff be responsible and accountable for their role in pet care so keep reading for some ideas and tips on how to get them to just do it!

How many times have you heard:

“ I didn’t know I was supposed to do that”

“That’s not the way I was trained to do it”

“Bob told me we use this report now”

Let’s take away these reasons or excuses by having documentation for each employee that confirms they understand their job responsibilities, policies, procedures and completion of training.  In our employee files we kept these key documents:

• Job description signed and dated by employee
• Acknowledgement of receiving and reading Employee Handbook
• Acknowledgement of reading standard operating procedures for their job
• Training summary – courses completed and date
• On-the-Job Training Checklist – initials and dates employee was trained on standard operating procedures

Maintaining these records removes the first two excuses and makes staff discussions easy.  You have signed documents as evidence they knew their job, had reviewed procedures, and received training.

Last week we talked about strong quality control programs that help prevent “drift”.  QC systems are an important tool to achieving staff compliance in following procedures.  Another key is the quality of your staff training program.

Formalize your on-the-job training process by creating a worksheet of the procedures each job position needs to be trained to perform.  Be sure you are selecting good people trainers that know and consistently follow your written procedures.   During the training process be sure there is an audit process to confirm procedure compliance before signing off that training is completed.  It is important to provide regular and timely feedback to new employees to prevent bad habits from developing.

There will be times when you need to make procedure changes.  For consistency you need to have a formal procedure change system in place to update the standard operating procedures and document retraining of all staff on the new process.  It is also important to be diligent with quality control when you first make a procedure change to ensure all staff implement changes correctly.

How do you get staff to complete checklists?  First they need to understand the value and reason why the checklist is required.  Completing the checklist should be easily linked to another task so that it becomes a habit.  It can also help to focus on a team goal of completing the checklist and provide rewards for improvement.

Once you have your systems in place it is important for you to be consistent in holding all staff accountable for their job performance.  Staff will imitate each other and if one person gets by with not completing work then others will soon follow.  Once you have systems in place it is much easier to have staff performance discussions as everything is in writing.  Clarify expectations and be prepared to release staff that won’t comply.

We also recommend that you create a recognition and reward system for your staff.  Rewards do not always have to be monetary and verbal recognition of a good job is often valued more by staff members.  Create fun for your staff by holding competitions and challenges to improve skills and job performance.  Celebrate and recognize winners and most improved staff in a team celebration with food.  Be sure to recognize staff that complete training programs, like Knowing Dogs.  Have a formal presentation of their certificates and announce their achievement in your newsletter or on Facebook announcements.

Frequent feedback on performance is also important so consider a short quarterly assessment on key dog leadership areas in addition to an annual review.  Offering cross-training opportunities and a clearly outlined career path are important steps that can keep staff engaged and motivated.

By providing clarity through documentation, formal training and feedback programs you can build a team of responsible staff members.    Your focus on excellence will result in motivated team members that will just do it and help your center achieve a designation of Excellence!