A Strange but Enlightening Experience

I blocked my calendar on the afternoon for February 24, 2022 to roll out that new handbook for all the team members working with Craig and Kim. Having done similar roll-outs several times in the decade leading up to it, I had a picture in my mind of what to expect - and I dreaded it! While my goal was to be brief, highlighting the specific areas everyone would want to get familiar with and touching on several of the most important procedural guidelines, I had never had one go quite that smoothly. Inevitably, there was that one guy in each group who was determined to pick everything apart and convince the rest of the team that ownership was out to get them…

As I mentioned, the business was about an hour away from our office so I left plenty early to make sure I’d be onsite well before the meetings started. In each human resource role I’ve held, I’ve always been very intentional about developing relationships with every member of the organizations I support, be that in a full-time position or in a consulting role. Even then though, I can’t say that I ever received a very warm greeting before presenting what would be included in a new employee handbook. At best, I had been tolerated, and there were a few times when tolerance was nowhere to be found! All said, I wasn’t feeling all that positive about this one. Being so far away, I had only been with the team a few times at all and just hadn’t been able to get to know folks as much as I had leading up to other handbook roll-outs. From the time I wanted through the door, though, I could tell something was different.

Our goal was to issue physical copies of the handbook and provide the overview as the team enjoyed a lunch provided by the owners. Since I rarely eat before presenting anything, mainly so I’m not burping on people, I had a chance to mingle as everyone got their food and settled in. To keep from shutting the retail section of the business down completely, we met with all the team members through three different sessions. To a person, everyone was positive. As I wrapped up one of the sessions, one of the most senior team members, one who pushed back his retirement date to help the new owners get acclimated, came to me in tears. He told me that prior to Craig and Kim taking ownership, he had “one foot out the door and the other was on a banana peel.” He said the handbook gave him and all of his coworkers a level of clarity that had never had before. He went on to explain that the five values the handbook was based on had been something he had heard Craig and Kim explain routinely since the acquisition; and more importantly, he had seen them live those values out in every interaction - with the team and with each customer the business served.

I won’t kid you, I wasn’t sure what I was experiencing. At one point, I looked around for a hidden camera! Was I being punked? Nobody thanks you for a handbook. To that end, I’ve never even liked those meetings… After talking with nearly everyone that day, and reflecting on it as I drove home, it was clear that their five values were not just something we had listed in the initial pages of the handbook; those values were indeed the foundation Craig and Kim had chosen to run and build that business.

While Cindy and I had various experiences with employers and other clients that helped us realize how important values really were, rolling out those handbooks served as a tipping point for how we wanted to run our own business and for the ideal client we wanted to serve. We’ll pick up there soon!