Communicating and practicing HR policies is an important framework and base for all stakeholders that make up a company. Proving useful for aspiring HR students/interns, HR practitioners, general employees and employers, the thorough coverage of such ensures understanding of the legalities of a business, the policies and regulations of a company and warrants all stakeholders as being treated fairly and within rights.
For a company to operate affectively, the business will have set in place a clear philosophy – usually established by employers in building the solid base of the company. In meeting this philosophy, a clear direction, goals and standards are set.
In communicating these statements to all stakeholders, having a physical written framework for all employees and employers is useful, setting the standard for future practices and help businesses in the present with their day-to-day tasks.
But how does this help key stakeholders?
The Employees:
From an employee perspective, communicating HR policies allows employees to understand their rights from an employee-employer relationship, clarify the company expectations, and regulate behavior between colleagues.
As a HR practitioner, the best way to ensure employees receive best knowledge about policies is to be up-front to the employees and inform them if there are any new procedures they need to adhere to. In addition to this, conducting a review with employees for company feedback ensures employees feel valued and listened to.
Ultimately, a positive communication relationship and of course implementation of some efforts will result in a more motivated and positive work-force.
Providing training for employees who need a more extensive look into more of the complicated polices, this will provide all the information which is necessary for the employees to understand the legislations as they will be implementing them into their business. As policies and procedures constantly change the company has to keep employees updated to guarantee they are on board with everything.
When there is a new procedure, employees need to be informed and sign off they understand they have been made aware of the change. By doing this, it allows the business to hold the employees responsible, and ensure everyone understands what is new. This enhances effective communication as everyone will understand the new policies and follow them.
All of these policies can be implemented and changed, however it will only be effective if people from the top of the organisation are on board with the changes and enforce the new policies. If they do not, employees may not take new policies seriously and ultimately be a risk for a company’s growth.
The Business:
From a pure business perspective, another reason why the enforcement of policies should be carried out by companies is to protect the company against claims – whether this be internal or external. Such claims brought about (should they be surfaced) can impact negatively on a company in the form of bad publicity or loss of money. By ensuring the company is sticking tightly to laws and regulations, it covers the company for any possible negligence.
Let’s say a key member of responsibility, a Manager, has to make a decision on an employee negotiating an increase in salary, a decision can be made by referring to the correct laws and regulations. Not only will this cover the Managers back, but ensure the best informed decision is made with the employee, employer and business in mind.
The Intern:
From an intern stand-point of view, HR internships educate students on the practicalities of the industry, and inclusive of this is the development in understanding of the internal policies of the business. With exposure to the importance of policies and regulations, interns can learn how to educate and implement company-specific regulations and observe the beneficial outputs in establishing an organisations culture – the direct output in employee happiness and ultimately, the enhancement of their overall work capacity.
Exemplar policies can include auditing, benchmarking, newly established policies and ongoing reviews. An example of a regulation could be the implementation of a Factsheet, one that offers help with communicating with different sectors of the workforce and how to implement policies in an appropriate manner to the organisation.
As some sectors do not directly work with each other, it can be easy to communicate ineffectively. By having a Factsheet in place, strong communication can be ensured, allowing sectors to work efficiently and effectively with a slimmer error margin.
Ultimately, the best way to implement certain aspects into everyday working life, this may include a website or a written document. Ensuring there is help or tools to manage the different policies will make a successful environment to work in. By communicating and practicing HR policies, employees and simultaneously, the business can grow positively.