Importance of Workplace Policies & Procedures

What Are Workplace Policies and Procedures?

Workplace policies are written rules that outline acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, set expectations for employees, and guide decision‑making. Procedures explain how to carry out those policies in practice, giving employees clear steps to follow in specific situations. Together, policies and procedures help employers manage staff consistently and lawfully, and give employees clarity about what is expected of them.

What Is the Purpose of Workplace Policies and Procedures?

Policies and procedures exist to set standards of behaviour, outline correct ways of working, support consistent decision‑making, and minimise legal and safety risks. They help articulate your organisation’s mission and values while providing a framework for resolving issues fairly.

Benefits of having company policies

A well-written company policy can help a business in many ways. Policies show 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 are forced to defend themselves against an unfair dismissal or Work Health and Safety (WHS) claim.

But the benefits of robust and well-communicated workplace policies offer benefits such as:

helping 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 maintain stability even during periods of uncertainty or change.
allow you to treat all employees equally, ensuring uniformity and consistency in decision-making and operational procedures
provide all employees with a documented method of dealing with complaints and misunderstandings, which should help avoid any undue claims of favouritism or discrimination
assist in assessing employee performance and establishing accountability.

Communicating policies to staff

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's claim, it’s unlikely any dismissals for breach of workplace policies will be upheld if all workplace policies were communicated properly to employees, and applied consistently.

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, as a business, you are all ‘pulling in the one direction’.

How to Develop Workplace Policies and Procedures

When you draft your workplace policies and procedures, it can seem a daunting, almost overwhelming, task. But don’t panic. These simple steps will help:

Tailor the policy to your workplace

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 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 your employees in your workplace poliocies 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 new employees and contractors are trained in relevant workplace policies and procedures (contractors should receive the WHS policies only), and 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 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.

Consistenly 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 you as the business owner – 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 like Peninsula.

Types of workplace policies (with examples)

Not all workplace policies will be needed by your business, but the following is a list of common workplace policies that you should consider for your business:

code of conduct
recruitment policy
internet and email policy
dress code policy
smoking policy
drug and alcohol policy
use of company property policy
health and safety policy
anti-discrimination and harassment policy
first aid policy
expense policy
grievance handling policy
discipline and termination policy
use of social media policy.

Reviewing and Updating Workplace Policies

Workplace policies and procedures should be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain compliant with legislation, reflect current workplace needs, and stay aligned with industry standards. If any changes occur, employers must clearly communicate the updated policy, explain what has changed, and outline how the change affects employees.

For help reviewing your policies, use Peninsula’s Employment Contract services

The Importance of Workplace Policies and Procedures