In the dynamic landscape of modern business, maintaining a streamlined and efficient operation is crucial for achieving success. 

One of the key factors contributing to operational excellence is the consistent adherence to company procedures by employees. When employees follow established procedures, it leads to improved productivity, reduced errors, and enhanced overall performance. 

It’s important to develop and nurture an ethical and compliant company culture that aligns with organisational procedures and processes. A culture of integrity that reflects your company procedures involves strong organisational values, consistent messaging and accountability. 

But how do you ensure that your employees comply with company procedures and secure staff buy-in with your organisational culture?

In this article, we will delve into strategies that can help you ensure your employees steadfastly follow your procedures, fostering a culture of discipline and compliance.

Why employee procedure adherence matters

Before delving into the strategies, it’s important to understand why you need to enforce employee procedure adherence in your business: 

• Consistency and quality: Clear procedures ensure consistent processes and outcomes. When your employees consistently follow procedures, it reduces variations in processes and errors, leading to higher-quality products and services.
• Efficiency: Your procedures serve as the roadmap to your business’s day-to-day operations, which can prevent your organisation from spiralling into chaos. Following established procedures often increases efficiency as employees know the optimal steps to complete tasks, which results in time and resource savings.
• Risk mitigation: Many procedures are designed to adhere to industry regulations and safety standards. When your employees follow procedures, workplace accidents and incidents are less likely to occur. Adhering to company procedures helps mitigate legal and operational risks.
• Training and onboarding: New employees can quickly learn the ropes when there are well-defined procedures in place. Developing training courses and making policy manuals accessible to employees can help in faster onboarding and training.
• Customer satisfaction: Consistency in processes translates to enhanced quality output from your employees, resulting in consistent customer experiences and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Strategies to ensure employee procedure adherence

There are five key areas in your business processes that you should focus on, and we’ve shortlisted the corresponding strategies you can implement for each area. 

Clear and accessible documentation

Developing clear documentation practices is crucial for the accuracy, traceability and reliability of centralised information in your organisation. This enables you to preserve institutional knowledge so you can continuously pass it on to new staff members as you scale your business.

You can create an organised and seamless documentation process for disseminating the employee procedures within the company:

• Simplicity: Use clear and simple language. Avoid jargon that might confuse employees.
• Step-by-step guides: Create strong guidelines for formatting and organising work documents that your employees can easily follow. Use bullet points or numbered lists if needed.
• Visual aids: Incorporate flowcharts, diagrams, and infographics to enhance understanding.
• Digital accessibility: Make sure documents are available digitally and easily accessible by all employees.

Thorough training and onboarding

Employees need to be trained and educated about the company procedures and processes they must follow as they’re accepted into the organisation. This enables your staff members to act appropriately and accordingly to different situations while minimising any errors or mistakes.

You can use different tips to train and onboard new employees about adhering to company procedures:

• Real-world scenarios: Present real-world scenarios where following procedures led to positive outcomes. This gives your employees a clear idea of how following the organisational procedures can benefit them while enabling them to prepare for different scenarios they are likely to encounter.
• Feedback loop: Encourage questions and feedback during training to address concerns early on. You can give effective and constructive feedback by providing clear pointers on how your employees can improve in a specific area. 
• Buddy system: Pair new employees with experienced ones for guidance and support. This also enables your staff to form new connections with different people.

Effective communication

Your organisation is a dynamic and ever-changing entity, it will naturally encounter changes and adjustments as you continue to grow. This will reflect in the company procedures you create and revise as you go along. 

This is where communication comes in: Your employees need to be aware of the changes and why they’re happening. There are different ways to do this:

• Regular updates: Keep employees informed about any changes in procedures.
• Q&A sessions: Hold regular sessions to address questions and concerns. This prevents misunderstandings and clears up any potential confusion about key procedures.
• Feedback mechanism: Encourage employees to provide feedback on procedures for continuous improvement. This lets you generate insights on improving company procedures while gaining staff buy-in on organisational processes.
• Two-way street: Create an environment where employees can voice concerns without fear of retribution. 

Learning essential communication skills can help you effectively instruct your employees about company procedures and keep them updated with potential changes. Knowing how to adapt your communication style to the situation and actively listening to your employees can help you navigate the challenges that come with enforcing company procedures and implementing changes.

Incentives and recognition

Positive reinforcements can encourage and motivate your employees to become role models in adhering to company procedures. Offering well-deserved financial incentives and positive reinforcements can also boost your employees’ productivity and job satisfaction.

These are just a few examples of how you can incentivise or provide recognition to your model employees:

• Performance bonuses: Tie adherence to procedures to performance bonuses.
• Gift cards and subscriptions: This can be a more affordable alternative to bonus compensations, while still providing a positive reinforcement to your staff in adhering to company procedures.
• Team celebrations: Celebrate teams that consistently adhere to procedures and achieve exceptional results.

Lead by example

As a business leader in your organisation, you must set an example to your managers and junior staff members, especially in adhering to company policies and procedures. You can do this by:

• Demonstrating adherence: Show employees that following procedures is a priority for everyone, including the leadership team.
• Being open to feedback: Be receptive to feedback and be willing to adapt procedures when necessary.
• Holding yourself accountable: Be accountable for adhering to procedures just like any other employee.

It’s important to be a transformative leader, as this will inspire and motivate your employees to follow your example. A transformative leadership style is personality-driven, and it involves well-developed soft skills that enable you to forge strong interpersonal relationships and inspire your staff with your ideas and communication skills. 

As a transformative leader, you can inspire your staff to follow your example and keep them motivated to follow the company procedures and embody the organisational values.

In the complex web of business operations, the consistent adherence to company procedures by employees is a cornerstone of success. By implementing strategies such as clear documentation, thorough training, effective communication, incentives, recognition, and leading by example, you can create a workplace culture where procedure adherence is second nature. 

This culture will not only enhance productivity and efficiency but also contribute to the long-term growth and success of your organisation. 

Remember, fostering a culture of procedure adherence is an ongoing effort that requires dedication and continuous improvement, but the rewards in terms of operational excellence are well worth it.

Contact us and we will help you hone in on the strategies for these business areas and make sure that your employees consistently follow company procedures.