Aligning HR policies to business plans
IN my earlier articles I wrote about how it was necessary and important for a human resources policy to be aligned to the business plan and at the same time be compliant with the relevant laws in order for the business to be productive and actually achieve its business objectives.
I also shared a little bit on the legislative framework governing employment relationships in Fiji and the guiding philosophy adopted by the tripartite legislators who designed the new labour legislations, “…those who create the problem have the primary responsibility to resolve it...” in juxtapose with the three universal principles that governs employment relations: and that is “…managements prerogative to manage, cost of doing business and workers rights”
This article is focused only on the creation and application of the human resources policy.
Too often I am asked the question as to what is so important about the human resources policy?
The answer is simple, where people are involved boundaries need to be established to manage them effectively with fairness and equity.
This can only be done by establishing the boundaries especially designed for the human resources (workers) to work towards achieving the business objectives without stepping on each other’s toes and without breaking any type of law.
The four fundamentals that is necessary to make a human resources policy complete are
1. Roles
2. Rules
3. Consequences; and
4. Tools
Roles: is knowing who you are in the organisation, knowing the person below you, next to you and above you.
When everyone is familiar with each other and the roles and responsibilities their respective position entails an enabling environment for a cohesive and effective team work is easily created.
Roles are established by positions that were determined by the functional structure and need of the organisation.
Each role is supposed to fulfil the organisational functions and on that basis the necessary qualification and skills required of the respective position to fulfil the respective functions collectively and effectively including the achievement of the business goals is determined.
This fact necessitates the contractual obligation of any position holder to comply with his or her job description and the agreed performance indicators.
This obligation is recognised in the laws of Fiji and is enforceable.
A person who knows his or her role, execute it faithfully with the trust that everyone else will do the same together with the faith that the policy will ultimately achieve the organisational business plan is the primary ingredient to business excellence and productivity.
One of my favourite example of someone knowing their role and executing their mandatory responsibility meaningfully and over and beyond expectation is Ruth from the Book of Ruth in the biblical Old Testament.
Ruth was not a Jew but she married a Jew who was living in her country. Her husband had passed away without giving her a child. Similarly his only other brother die without any child.
Her mother in law had long been a widow and the demise of her two sons rendered her almost a pauper in a foreign land without any hope of seeing the continuation of her husband’s lineage.
Despite being released of any perceived obligation on her part to remain with her mother in law Ruth chose to remain faithful to the memory of her husband and adopted her mother in law as her mother and accompanied her back to Israel.
She converted to her husband’s religion and entrusted her life to her mother in law with full submission to the customs of her newly adopted people.
Long story short she was able to save the lineage and legacy of her husband. Her first born was named Obed and he was the father of Jesse.
Jesse is of course the father of David who was the greatest King the Jews ever had.
This same line eventually begot Jesus Christ and we all know the impact this Man has made on the world.
In carrying out our roles we as workers should always have trust that our role (no matter how seemingly unimportant it may be) and the prescribed job description is an integral part of the overall business plan and believe that by carrying out our role diligently in accordance to our Job Descriptions we are in fact contributing positively towards achieving the organisations goals and objectives.
Rules: are boundaries especially established to set apart the workers from what is not needed to what is absolutely necessary to get the job done. How we get the job done is also important.
Health and safety of the workers with fair labour practices should always be the overriding guiding factor in establishing the said boundaries.
The other important and mandatory requirement is the dispute resolution mechanism. The national minimum labour standard is another guiding factor for setting up the rules.
During this COVID-19 pandemic period the protocols set out by the Ministry of Health is another important rule.
Consequences: when we do not know our role and try to interfere with other peoples roles confusion sets in and the achievement of business goals is not going to happen.
It is very simple if you act outside your and do not follow the set rules the consequences becomes negative. However if we act within our roles with faithfulness and trust in the policy and follow the rules the consequence is definitely going to be positive.
This is where the performance management system kicks in for the organisation as a whole and the performance appraisal system for the individuals.
Tools: anything that can be used to ensure people act diligently within the roles and responsibly within the rules to guarantee positive outcomes is a tool.
Social dialogue, open communication, the Human Resources Policy, etc, are good examples of tools.
At the end of the day the road to productivity depends on the people working out their roles as individuals and the policies that bind them collectively with other role players fulfilling the final outcome.
Their effort depends on the effective application of the policy which in turn is reliant on how much it is aligned to the business plan and how much it is compliant with the relevant law.
For any IR consultancy or enquiries you can always contact Noel Tofinga on the FCEF IR Helpline 9994995, between the hours of 10am to 10pm or contact him via email on noel.tofinga@gmail.com / irconsultant@fcef. com.fj. The views expressed in this article are his own and not that of this newspaper.