For years, Nordstrom’s Employee Handbook was a single 5×8” gray card containing these 75 words:
Welcome to Nordstrom
We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.
Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.
Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.
During this time, Nordstrom had the highest sales per square foot performance in the retail industry – by almost double. [thx Ian]
Ian
on 27 Oct 10You’re welcome. The link to XLC reminds me a lot of the Zappos culture model. Delivering Happiness makes it seem as though TH&co came up with it organically though there are tons of parallels.
Robert
on 27 Oct 10Not only does this make sense from a logical standpoint, but it empowers employees to make their own decisions.
When employees get to choose their own adventure, they will typically become more invested and productive than if you tie them down with endless rules and procedures.
I really like this. Sometimes the simplest things can break your brain and change the way you view the world. This is one of those things.
Nate Tharp
on 27 Oct 10Trust. One of the most valuable things you can give an employee. And Nordstrom put it at the forefront of their strategy. Brilliant.
Deltaplan
on 27 Oct 10Now we need to know why it isn’t like that any more…
Jim
on 27 Oct 10If you look below it in the wikipedia article you see this:
However, new hire orientations now provide this card along with a full handbook of other more specific rules and legal regulations, as the way Nordstrom operates has changed
Eddie Colbeth
on 27 Oct 10Great Manual! Short and to the point, no bullshit or CYA fluff.
Reminiscent of Semco’s Survival Manual: http://bit.ly/c5YZFS
Kevin Morrill
on 27 Oct 10This turns out to not actually be the way Nordstrom operates at all. Talk to their employees and they will tell you. They’re routinely forced to accept fraudulent returns from shoplifters (which you pay for when you shop there). It’s one of the most demoralizing places to work I am told.
Esinkuma
on 27 Oct 10Refreshing
Dmitry
on 27 Oct 10I find it funny that nowadays the card (with its “there will be no other rules” declaration) comes bundled with a large handbook of rules.
But still impressive (when it still meant something).
Glenn
on 27 Oct 10It’s a sign of the times. It used to be that a handshake would be enough. Unfortunately now the lawyers are involved. Rich Devos, the retired president of Amway used to say that in the beginning you fight to make money, then once you have money you have to fight to keep your money from the lawyers.
Glenn
on 27 Oct 10By the way, I don’t remember where the quote came from or if i got it exactly right, but it was something like that.
Steve R.
on 27 Oct 10I worked for Lands End years back. They used Nordstroms’ approach, with attribution, and added only one other item to their customer service policy – “Guaranteed. Period.” Anything you bought there could be returned at any time, for any reason, with or without a receipt. We had surprisingly little abuse.
@Kevin Morill – theft is a fact in retail. It does suck to take back fraudulent returns, but there is a balancing act between paying for shoplifters and pissing off regular customers. Lands’ End founder Gary Comer succeeded massively when he bet that trusting people was more profitable than cracking down on a few deadbeats, and as an employee, I was glad to not have to badger people I had helped purchase items when they (rarely) returned them.
Now Sears owns Lands End, so I’m not sure if any of this even applies any more.
Win
on 27 Oct 10When my sons were younger and of an age to be susceptible to peer pressure, I told them there were only two rules they had to remember, in order to decide on any course of action:
1) I am your mother, and I will find out.
2) I get even.
They grew up to be terrific adults.
It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Don Schenck
on 28 Oct 10No matter what you do , I will unconditionally love you.
Don Schenck
on 28 Oct 10My comment got mangled; That was my rule to my children.
Bill Canaday
on 28 Oct 10Nordstroms one rule separated two groups: those who needed to be told what to do and those self-motivated individuals who saw themselves as self-employed. Although I have drawn paychecks from many employers, I have always and only been self-employed.
Of course, managers operated under the same rule and employee lapses in judgment would not be allowed to bring the company down.
Tina Still
on 28 Oct 10While the employee handbook is good in theory, I’m curios about the manager’s handbook. I have nothing but negative feelings for Nordstrom because of how they treated my mother. My mother was a faithful long term employee in their communications department for many years. She’s won several awards for being a Nordstrom “Shining Star” and was asked to move from NJ to NC to help build a communications dept in a new store. She was promised a promotion for making the move. When she got there not only was she not given the promotion, they reduced her salary because she was making more than everyone else. After years in this new dept, they decided to outsource the function. They moved my mother to a position where she had to be on her legs but she has a very visible condition where she can’t be on her legs for too long and ultimately she got hurt. Now she can’t work and Nordstrom said it was a pre-existing condition and will not do anything for her. My mother is approaching 70 and does’t want to fight but if nothing else they should honor her for being a model employee. I would’t by a sock from Nordstrom.
Reba
on 28 Oct 10I had a teacher my sophomore year of high school whose entire first-day-of-school orientation to classroom rules took about three minutes because he only had one rule: be respectful. It covered a multitude of sins: respect my time (be ready to start), respect your effort (do your best work), respect your classmates, respect others’ opinions (cite your sources), respect learning materials (don’t shred the textbook), etc, etc. Underneath that rule, he listed his room number and phone number…in case we still had concerns after having asked ourselves “what’s the respectful solution?” We were 10th graders: we’d been in school long enough to know what was expected and he was the only teacher in school who could cover rules and procedures and start on curriculum material the very first day.
Mark
on 28 Oct 10As Glenn alluded to, a lot of things were that simple “for years” generations ago. For example, my grandparents never had to worry with home alarm systems and usually kept their car keys in their cars. Most business was conducted by a simple handshake and their was no handbook at all, because it was typical that employees stayed around at one company for decades.
Times change.
Jane Quigley
on 28 Oct 10I worked for Nordstrom for a number of years across different divisions and everything I know about managing people came from that company. I never worried that I’d be fired or written up for doing whatever I needed to to make a customer’s experience with the store the very best it could be. That freedom made you invested in the company in a way that a “handbook” with tons of do’s and don’t’s wouldn’t ever.
I once had a customer from Seattle who’s $15K watch needed to be fixed before a big meeting. I was able to loan him a watch (in the same price range) while his was being fixed and then sent home. He actually got to keep the new watch until he was home in Seattle. Not once did I have to ask anyone’s permission to do this.
This commitment also extended to their employees – they felt that instead of a pyramid where the CEO was on top and everything trickled down, at Nordstrom the employees were at the top of the pyramid. That their employees needed to be empowered as the faces of the company to be the heart, mind and soul of the company.
Eric
on 28 Oct 10My one and only rule is to “Be nice”.
biet
on 28 Oct 10This is a great way to run things! And its how we run things at Adholes as well, amen to critical thinking.
adholes.com
John
on 28 Oct 10Interestingly enough, this was the Tribune Company’s handbook as of a couple of years ago. It worked great for them.
Mark
on 28 Oct 10I love this approach. I really do.
However I would ask the same question as @Deltaplan. Nordstrom have added a handbook of rules and regulations. Why?
What we need to know and understand is how a company that uses this approach to business integrates it with the legal requirements placed upon them by their country’s government and laws. What do other companies do?
Happy Mom
on 30 Oct 10My daughters school technically has no “rules” but challenges students to ask four questions about any choice or behavior…
1) Is is Kind 2) Is it Safe 3) Does it promote learning 4) Does it protect property
If the answer is no, it’s not ok. If the answer is yes, they can feel free. The students and teachers discuss all behavioral concerns (outside of IEP/special ed type situations, I would imagine…although that’s still the goal) in these terms.
Terry Dunn
on 30 Oct 10One simple, clear, all-encompassing rule, written so it inspires and get the best out of your employees. How could it not succeed? I only wish other companies had similar handbooks instead of the poorly written or stazi-style rules. Oh, and the obligatory ‘mission’.
Terry
Sarah H
on 01 Nov 10Is it enough just to make the statement? Only if there is an underpinning culture of trust and empowerment within the company to support such freedom.
It is not enough to simply state that everyone should “feel free to ask” unless everyone knows and believes that it is safe and OK – and that they will have a fair hearing.
Paul Morriss
on 02 Nov 10I like how this is after your other post about interruptions. If you ask a question at any time, you’re interrupting aren’t you?
This discussion is closed.