Soft Sell Those ever-so-nice solicitors are eating up your workers' time.

One of your employees is selling candy to help his kids raisemoney for a school project. Another is passing out brochures andtaking orders for a party to sell jewelry or food-storagecontainers. And then there's the salesperson who stops by witha supply of lunch items for your employees to purchase. It's nobig deal, right? Wrong.

"While workplace solicitation may seem harmless, it has thepotential to create labor problems, productivity problems andmorale problems for employers," says D. Allen Miller, managingdirector of Business Advantage International, a human resourceservices firm in Farmington, Utah.

Under Miller's guidance, Bing Fang, 35, president of AMTLabs in North Salt Lake, Utah, enforces a solicitation andliterature distribution policy at his neutraceutical manufacturingcompany. The policy prohibits solicitation of employees on companyproperty by all unapproved outside entities. "We make vitaminand mineral supplements, and we follow stringent sanitationregulations," Fang says. "Outside solicitors couldaccidentally contaminate products or be hurt byequipment."

AMT Labs' policy also bans employees from soliciting oneanother during work time or whenever such activity may interferewith work. It does, however, allow such soliciting on breaks and atmeal times. Solicitation includes asking for funds for memberships,products, contributions or other purposes, as well as distributinganything other than company literature. Management may make anexception to the policy in unusual circumstances, such as taking upa collection in a case of hardship. Says Fang, "The policymakes it easy for employees who don't want to participate tojust walk away and know they can't be badgered at all hours.But they can make their own choices while on their break or atlunch time."

Jacquelyn Lynn left the corporate world more than 13 yearsago and has been writing about business and management from herhome office in Winter Park, Florida, ever since.