The Importance of Workplace Policies and Procedures
There are different types of businesses and workplaces in Australia. Each business will have its own processes and methods of dealing with customers. When you add the human element of employees and employers working together into the mix, it becomes obvious how important workplace policies and procedures are.
What is a Workplace Policy?
No matter what type of workplace or business you run, policies are important. They help clarify and reinforce the standards expected of employees in all their professional dealings and assist employers in managing staff effectively by defining what’s acceptable and unacceptable in the workplace. Policies are often provided to employees in a handbook that clearly outlines all workplace policies and procedures, or the policy itself may form part of the employment contract.
Benefits of Having Company Policies
A well-written company policy can help a business in many ways. Policies show that the organisation is efficient and diligent, raising stability and ensuring consistency in the decision-making process and in operational procedures.
Policies also benefit employers if they ever are forced to defend themselves against an unfair dismissal claim, Work Health and Safety (WHS) prosecution or liability claims.
But the benefits of robust and well communicated workplace policies offer benefits such as:
help employees understand your expectations with respect to standards of behaviour and performance, and gives them defined boundaries that are consistent with the values of your business.
provide a set of guidelines for decision-making in everyday situations that employees can refer to, which can help to maintain stability even during periods of upheaval or change.
allows you to treat all employees equally, ensuring uniformity and consistency in decision-making and operational procedures
provide all and sundry with a documented method of dealing with complaints and misunderstandings, which should help avoid any undue claims of favouritism or discrimination
can assist in assessing employee performance and establishing accountability
Communicating Policies to Staff
However, a workplace policy is no good if it’s not communicated effectively to new and existing employees. If you are ever brought in front of a court or tribunal defending yourself against an employee case, it’s unlikely any dismissals for breach of workplace policies will be upheld if all the workplace policies were communicated properly to employees, and applied consistently across all.
The key to success is regularly updating and reviewing workplace policies and procedures, and then holding regular training sessions with your employees to inform and remind them of relevant workplace policies. This way, you can ensure that, as a business, you are all ‘pulling in the one direction’.
How to Develop Policies and Procedures in The Workplace
When you sit down to draft your workplace policies and procedures, it can seem a daunting, almost overwhelming, task. But don’t panic! Following these simple steps will help:
Tailor the policy to your business
Workplace policies and procedures are not, unfortunately, a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Rather, they should be tailored to the needs of your business. If you do use workplace policies and procedures from another source, they should be adapted to suit your workplace operations.
Define obligations clearly
Workplace policies and procedures should be written in plain, easy to understand English. This is not the time for confusing corporate-writing, full of jargon and double speak! All policies should be short and succinct and communicated in such a way that everyone in your workplace understands exactly what is expected of them.
Make your policies realistic
We all want to improve and, indeed, should constantly strive for improvement, but there is no point in trying to adopt a workplace policy which aspires to the best practice possible, if the reality doesn’t match the ambition.
Simply put, you need to ensure your business has the time, resources and personnel needed to adopt and implement any workplace policy you draft. Otherwise, employees will become discouraged at constantly not being able to meet expectations, and your workplace policy will run the risk of being just another official document on the staff intranet.
Once you’ve developed and drafted your workplace policies and procedures comes the really challenging part: implementing them.
Here are some simple steps you can take to ensure your workplace policies and procedures have the best chance of being seamlessly adopted into your workplace:
Consult
It sounds simple, but many forget this step. Just because you’re the boss or manager, doesn’t mean you should – or indeed, have to – go it alone. When developing your workplace policies and procedures, you should consult with all relevant stakeholders, including health and safety representatives, regular contractors and, of course, your employees.
Consulting will mean that everyone understands the importance of your workplace policies and procedures, as well as ensuring they are realistic and actionable on a daily basis.
Publicise the policies and procedures
As mentioned earlier, your workplace policies and procedures are no good if they’re not effectively communicated. The solution is to put your policies and procedures in writing and make them readily available to your entire workforce. It’s a good idea to try and keep all your workplace policies and procedures in a single handbook, with the manual available to all staff, new and old.
If you have a company intranet, it also doesn’t hurt to have your workplace policies and procedures available there, especially any and all health and safety documents.
Train all employees in your workplace policies and procedures
This isn’t just a ‘nice to do’: as an employer, you have an obligation to provide adequate information, instruction, supervision and training to your employees. You need to ensure that new employees and contractors are trained in the relevant workplace policies and procedures (contractors should receive the WHS policies only), and that all existing staff receive appropriate and timely training, such as bi-annual refresher courses. It’s a good idea to keep track of who has received what training, and keep a sign-off sheet indicating that the employee has understood and agrees to comply with your workplace policies and procedures.
Workplace policies and procedures should also be discussed regularly at team meetings, keeping them top of mind for all employees and reiterating their importance – and the importance that you place on them as the boss.
Consistently implement your policy
Your workplace policies are not just pieces of paper to be read once, then forgotten. They should follow the behaviours and methods of all your employees, every day, as they go about company business. Therefore, supervision of your workplace to ensure proper implementation of your workplace policies and procedures by all employees is essential.
This also implies that any failure to meet the agreed upon policy or procedure should be followed up on and addressed, and that full compliance with the stated requirements is needed to ensure a safe workplace.
It should go without saying, but all supervisors and managers – including yourself – must lead by example when it comes to implementing workplace policies and procedures. Modelling expected behaviour via all levels of management is the most effective demonstration of a workplace policy. After all, if managers condone practices which do not comply with a policy, it could later be argued that disciplinary action against an employee who fails to follow the policy is unfair.
Review workplace policies and procedures regularly
All your workplace policies and procedures should be reviewed periodically – some WHS legislation may require you to do so, but otherwise this is not an obligation for employers. If any changes occur, ensure these changes are communicated with your employees. Not the previous policy, and then state clearly the updated policy, how it has changed, and how this change affects employees.
Enforce the workplace policies and procedures
Finally, once your workplace policies and procedures have been implemented, you need to enforce them: or ‘walk your talk’. You should apply your policies consistently, as this will mean everyone is guided by the same policies. Obviously, the simpler the system, the easier it is for your employees to understand and for you to enforce health and safety policies and procedures.
Workplace Policy Checklist
Don’t be daunted by the seemingly overwhelming task of writing a workplace policy. In essence, all you need to consider is that a workplace policy should:
clearly state the aim of the policy
explain in plain English why the policy was developed
list who the policy applies to (i.e.: all employees/management only)
set out acceptable and/or unacceptable behaviour
clearly state the consequences of not adhering with the policy
provide a date when the policy was developed or updated
Also remember that employment law does change, and any changes to your award or agreement may also require a review of your policies and procedures. You should strive to stay up-to-date with relevant changes to your industry by regularly checking with a workplace relations expert.
Types of Workplace Policies
Not all workplace policies will be needed by your workplace, but the following is a list of common workplace policies that you should consider for your workplace:
code of conduct
recruitment policy
internet and email policy
dress policy
smoking policy
drug and alcohol policy
use of company property policy
health and safety policy
anti-discrimination and harassment policy
first aid policy
grievance handling policy
discipline and termination policy
use of social media policy
