Me training the new person at work: “So you’re not really supposed to do this, but this is what I do.”

If you are the business owner or manager who overhears this, you are probably cringing! You might even be angry.

Before anyone loses their head over this, I have a few recommendations. First, go ahead and interrupt the training, pull the trainer aside, and ask why they do the process the way they do it. Have they found a better way? Was there something you didn’t know about the process when it was created that makes the official process less than efficient or effective? Have conditions changed that have warranted a change in the official process?

Often the people you have closest to the process are the best people to advise you on better ways to do things. Start with a conversation about why this employee is doing things their own way. If this employee has a better way, then consider changing the process.

Does their way make sense enough, but involve cutting corners or adding risk that puts your company or employees at risk? If that is the case, did you train the employee to understand that the reason they have to follow your process is for the health, safety, or legal liability of your company?

For example, maybe you have a cleaning company, and you don’t allow employees to use bleach because you happen to use ammonia in your cleaning process. You know that mixing ammonia and bleach is deadly. You also don’t want the liability of bleach-stained carpets, so you have banned bleach from your cleaning arsenal. However, your employee loves using bleach and brings this inexpensive product to a job.

If you explain your reasons for not permitting this product or process, is your employee willing and able to follow the correct process? If not, you should relieve this employee from these trusted duties, and definitely not let them train someone else.

Was this employee trained correctly when they learned the job? Or was this also the way their trainer trained them? If they weren’t trained properly or their trainers or managers have always turned a blind eye, you need to retrain the employee. If they can’t be retrained, then you’ve got to let them go and also not allow them to train anyone else.