Recently, a subscriber reached out to me for advice. He had hired a sales specialist for his company, and during the probationary period, the following situation arose. The candidate was good at advising clients and quickly learned the instructions, but categorically refused to study the company’s general regulations and policies.
This is a fairly common story among my acquaintances and students. In this article, I’ll explain why this happens and how to deal with it.
Why Employees Sabotage Regulations
Admittedly, it’s quite strange: a person comes to work at a company where there are specific regulations that all company employees should know. Yet, they refuse to learn them. The first thing I would do is go to this person and have a conversation. I wouldn’t send managers; I’d do it myself.
Because I personally created many of the company’s regulations at some point. Understandably, they have been improved many times since then. Many of our talented leaders and specialists have contributed. But I would still prefer to talk to this person personally. I would be interested to understand what’s on their mind.
If they outright refuse to study the regulations, it means we missed something during the onboarding of this employee. For example, we might not have explained something that seems obvious. That if a person works in the company, they are part of a team. And every team has its rules. Therefore, if they want to play effectively as a team member, they need to know the rules the team plays by.
Perhaps you didn’t explain this simple idea to the new employee. Their concept of working in the company might be, “I have my little corner, I do my job and don’t want to deal with anyone. Don’t bother me, and I’ll do my job well”. If the person has such a viewpoint, it would be good to change it.
How to Change an Employee’s Point of View
We always do this during onboarding. We explain that our company is a team. A team means interaction. We give examples, clarify, and help the person understand who they depend on in the company and how. And sometimes, people are surprised to find out that if you’re a salesperson, you heavily depend on the marketing department because they generate leads.
And the marketing department depends on you because they are interested and need to know what customers say and think. It’s necessary to help each other by exchanging information. The accounting should provide data about what’s happening with your clients, payments. And the accounting depends on you because if the sales department doesn’t meet sales plans, the marketing department also can’t plan its activities.
We always explain to our employees that every team member depends on the others. We make sure newcomers bring up many examples, understand them. We use a functional structure, test their knowledge of it. That is, we make employees think. After such work, the person has no objections regarding the regulations.
In Practice
I suggested the following solution to the subscriber. I advised bringing the person to the company’s functional organizational structure, where all departments, all employees, and all expected results from the departments are listed. And to play a game with them. Ask them to name their work result first. And then go through all the departments.
For example, the advertising department. Their result is qualified leads that salespeople can work with. This is valuable to a salesperson. And then there’s PR, which creates the company’s image. Thanks to their work, the company is known, your materials are published in various outlets, and people have a good opinion of you.
Playing such a game with the person can help rebuild the connection between the elements of the whole and an understanding of teamwork.
Conclusion
For successful teamwork, it’s important that all employees know and follow the common rules of work. If any newcomer doesn’t want to learn these rules, it’s worth having a personal conversation with them. Perhaps the person simply does not understand how important it is to be aware of these rules for the overall success. Often, the problem lies in a misunderstanding of how the work of one employee affects the results of the entire team.
To change the situation, you can show how the entire company works together, and how important each team member is for the overall success. Using real-life company examples and playful learning methods can help newcomers better understand and accept the common rules. When an employee sees that their work is important to others and depends on the work of other departments, they become more interested in learning the regulations and contributing to the common cause.
Thus, the main thing is not just to make the newcomer learn the rules, but to help them see their place in the team and understand how their work affects the overall success. This will help them become a full and active participant in the process, not just an employee performing their duties.
