Policies and procedures why is it important




















Without adequate and well-developed policies and procedures, there are no rules. And unfortunately, without defined rules, people create their own.

A policy is a predetermined course of action , establishing the guidelines towards business strategies and objectives. Policies identify key activities and guide decision-makers on how to handle issues as they arise. A procedure explains a specific action plan for carrying out a policy. In plain terms, a procedure is a road map.

They eliminate common misunderstandings by identifying job responsibilities and establish boundaries for those jobs. Using policies and procedures gives employees a well-rounded view of the workplace , allowing them to know the culture the organisation is striving for, the acceptable behaviours, and how to achieve them. Workplace policies have received a poor reputation, sometimes for being long or voluminous.

A well-drafted set of policies and procedures ensures that your company rules, standards, values, culture, and benefits are clearly outlined. Policies and procedures address common HR issues or questions and also minimise your risk of receiving unfair employment practices claims. Every industry has its own set of laws, regulations, standards and best practices that businesses need to abide by.

Ensuring compliance requires organisations, and specifically their HR department, to continually review the current compliance environment. As companies expand and evolve globally, internal processes can be challenging to follow.

However, these are essential in ensuring consistency throughout the business. Whether this be in the level or quality of your customer service or product, your business reputation depends on consistency. They keep organisations from overlooking incidents, preventing them from turning into a crisis. For example, whilst workplace incidents happen internally and can interrupt day-to-day operations, a crisis usually happens externally and can be harder to anticipate and control.

Examples of a crisis include disasters, faulty products, malware attacks, lawsuits. Policies and procedures are i mportant as they help clarify and reinforce the standards expected of the employee in all their professional dealings. On the other hand, they also help employers manage staff effectively by defining what is acceptable and unacceptable in the workplace.

Employees should be provided with a copy either hard form or electronic and they should sign an acknowledgement of receiving and understanding the policies. An on-site investigation was conducted in which numerous employees were interviewed and documentation was reviewed. During the interview process, it became clear that there was a consistent theme that the accused individual has a history of problematic behavior spanning the last several years. The problematic behavior included both verbal and physical altercations with fellow co-workers, insubordinate behavior, and numerous customer complaints.

Further, despite having clearly articulated written policies and procedures regarding discipline and employee conduct, the organization did not respond in accordance with these policies. Specifically, the accused employee was involved in a physical altercation within the first 90 days of employment. While there is a no-tolerance policy regarding violence in the workplace and the behavior was sufficient cause for termination, the employee was suspended and then transferred to another department.

The employee was allowed to continue his employment, despite numerous behavioral problems, most of which were undocumented. This organization invested significant resources in engaging a third-party to investigate an employee who should have been terminated years earlier. Based upon all information gathered by the external investigators, the organization terminated the accused employee; however, the effort and expense to the organization were significant.

The organization spent tens of thousands of dollars to terminate an employee, whom they had sufficient grounds to fire only months into his employment. This case illuminates two poignant issues: organizations need clear and consistent company policies regarding acceptable employee behavior; and organizations need to enforce workplace policies when employees fail to comply with the acceptable standard of behavior.

Feel like your policy management could use a refresh? Your staff may not be able to just pick up the phone and get a new permission to some additional part of the network. On the other hand, how much would you lose if you lost the person that understood exactly why your firewall is set up the way it is? Without writing these processes down, you create massive vulnerabilities. You can mitigate the change somewhat, though, by writing your company culture into your policies and procedures.

Nowhere is it written that policies and procedures must be horribly formal, boring-to-read documents filled with legalese and pain. What are the things that make people want to work there? Fit your policies and procedures to your company culture, your business, and how your people interact. This will minimize the hardship of implementing them and help preserve what makes your organization unique. In a world of lean staff, fast turnaround, and an emphasis on doing a lot with a little, finding the time for governance may be extremely difficult.

I can hand you management book after management book, essay after essay, whitepaper after whitepaper, all on how defined policies and procedures will improve your business at every level if you follow the process. The time to do the work and document your policies and procedures has to be found. The advantages outweigh the pain of policies and procedures. Committing to the process has serious benefits. Does your organization view mature policies and procedures as a necessary evil?

Do you understand the purpose of policies and procedures? What obstacles has your organization found when developing or implementing policies and procedures? How have you built in the time to commit to enforcing policies and procedures?



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