The Nordstrom Employee Handbook

The Nordstrom Employee Handbook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordstrom#Employee_handbook

For many years, new employees were given a copy of the famous Nordstrom's Employee Handbook – a single 5 x 8-inch (200 mm) gray card containing 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 good 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.

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 evolved.

While it's true that new employees at Neiman Marcus receive a rather large handbook of rules and regulations, none of them address the daily situations encountered while working as far as interactions with customers and protocol among coworkers.

Neiman Marcus Rule #1 for Sales Associates: Do whatever it takes to make a sale as you are working for yourself  (commission based). No specific guidance will be provided at any level (who cares what goes on, as long as Dept. and Store goals are met).

I asked Ginger Reeder, Vice President - Corporate Communications, Neiman Marcus, the following question via email:

Is it true that there really is no protocol for Sales Associates, Product Specialists and/or Management at Neiman Marcus? Any information and / or guidance you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Her response: Not at all true.

Mrs. Reeder was unresponsive to the followup email below:

Mrs. Reeder,

The detailed listing on my blog most certainly is true.

I have added it below for your review although I suspect you know very well what's going on in your stores.

If there is indeed a protocol handbook of any kind for Sales Associates, Product Specialists, and/or Management it has never been seen or reviewed by any Neiman Marcus employee that I know of, which leads to the situations outlined below.

It would be very worthwhile, in my opinion, to send some sort of guide (or link to an online guide) to all Neiman Marcus Sales Associates as none of the situations below have been adequately addressed in any form.

I sincerely appreciate your response and am hoping that you will direct some energy to addressing the situation in the near future.

Neiman Marcus Employee HR Hotline

What is a Sales Associate to do when problems arise? The first step is apparently to bring the situation to the attention of Human Resources at the current location which is handled by HR telling the Associate to discuss it with their Department Manger who does nothing about it. So the cycle continues . . . Human Resources does not want any situation to escalate and perhaps reach someone beyond their store and the Department Managers don't like Associates going over their head to address unresolved problems. This is odd because if in either case they were concerned about someone above their level hearing about any problems they would simply make every effort to correct what's going on. Sadly this is not the case. What can the Sales Associate do next . . . call the toll free 'HR Hotline' to discuss their problems. In the specific case I have been told about contact with the 'HR Hotline' was made and the HR person scheduled a call back the following day to discuss the situation. The outcome was . . . no call back and none expected now after three weeks have passed. The result is that Associates feel as though they have nowhere to turn when real problems exist due to the complete lack of action at every level. I know the purpose of Human Resources is basically to make everyone 'feel' as though something has been done or will be taken care of. In all of these cases no attempt was made to address the issues brought by the Sales Associate, period.