Managing your workplace policies
As part of our ongoing commitment to an open team culture and productive successful workplace at PKF Francis Aickin, we attended a managing workplace policies webinar. It had a lot of points worth sharing.
Why is it important to have workplace policies and procedures? Policies work alongside employment agreements to make sure both the employer and employee are clear on the expectations and obligations of the employment relationship. They tell your workers what you expect from them, and what they can expect from you.
It is important to have clear and consistent workplace policies and procedures.
They need to be in plain English, simple to understand, match your workplace values and culture and be consistent with your employment agreement. Ask yourself, is the policy fair and reasonable? Review your policies and procedures at least once a year to check they are still up to date; maybe there has been a legal change, eg. a parental leave change.
Procedures should explain how things are to be done and linked to a policy.
Policies shouldn’t just be discussed as part of your recruitment and induction process.
You should check staff understand what the policies mean by talking about them in team meetings, having them accessible, maybe copies in the lunch room, and generally talked about on an ongoing basis.
If you are writing new or updating existing policies you could choose to consult with staff, as you are more likely to get buy-in and a better understanding, but you can implement policy without agreement. Do what is best for your business.
Essential policies are health and safety, employee wellbeing, drug and alcohol, code of conduct, leave and holidays.
The employee wellbeing policy should consider emotional, physical, social, career and financial wellbeing. A good wellbeing policy should reduce stress in the workplace and help with overall staff happiness and engagement.
The leave and holiday policy should cover managing sick leave, parental leave, leave without pay, long service leave, public holidays, etc. A good policy should reduce the risk that anyone misunderstands the conditions of employment.
Other useful policies, depending on your business, could be study leave, flexible working hours, privacy and confidentiality, dress and appearance, social media and use of technology.
Well-written policies outline the benefits and entitlements for staff, save your business time and money, and help build great relationships with staff. They will help you comply with your obligations as an employer and reduce misunderstandings that can lead to disputes.
You can’t expect staff to follow the rules if they don’t know and understand them.
Business.govt.nz and Employment NZ have launched the Workplace Policy Builder to help you easily and effectively create policies tailored to your business (https://wpb.business.govt.nz/ workplacepolicybuilder/startscreen/). The tool guides you through steps to create policies tailored to your business. A policy can be as short or as detailed as you need.
Remember that good staff are your most important asset.