Employee handbook for a general store in a rural area*

The Literacy Section of the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture forms partnerships with local businesses and unions to promote and offer workplace education programs. For an initial upgrading program, a group of employees in a general store on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore embarked on a product-oriented project — to make an employee-written company handbook.

The general store is actually a complex that offers many varied services to the community and tourists. It includes a hardware store, post office, insurance office, dining room, coffee shop, gas bar, and motel. The handbook project was the work of employees in the coffee shop and dining room.

With increasing development and tourism in the area the owner anticipated more business for his complex, which had been losing trade to a nearby urban centre. The owner had managed all aspects of the business, supervising employees and handling all customer requests and inquiries himself. He realized that his employees should be able to handle customer service, and was interested in how improved written communication would benefit both store operation and the employees.

The employees, while expressing an interest in a range of basic skills, decided with the owner and literacy coordinator that a project focused on rewriting the department manual would be the most useful way to deal with the issues of customer service, working cooperatively, and skills improvement.

The goals of the program were

Specific strategies to reach these goals included

The original manual was outdated. The new manual contains visual support for the text on a number of topics. Research on the history of the site provides information for tourists. The team rewrote job descriptions, compiled instructions on how to use the intercom system and how to get information from the RCMP, and transcribed word-of-mouth recipes to help ensure consistent food in both eateries.

With publication of their own handbook the staff feel confident about their job responsibilities, especially in customer relations. Having worked co-operatively on a published product they are also likely to see writing as a permanent and useful form of expression.