Making Policy Perform
Being that it is December, I am confident your company has already formalized budgets for 2009 and short and long-term strategic business goals have been identified. So, the time is right to go one step further and ensure human resources policy is implemented and communicated in order to facilitate achievement of these goals. In essence, policy must perform for your company, especially during these tight economic times when cutting costs and improving efficiencies are critical.
To understand what I mean by making policy perform, honestly answer the following questions: (1) Is your team recruiting the best or just filling positions with a warm body? (2) Once you hire, are the company’s on-boarding activities successful? (3) Are you requiring on-going training for all employees? (4) Are you correctly developing job responsibilities to meet business goals? (5) Are employees consistently evaluated to facilitate appropriate employee recognition or proactive management of performance deficiencies? If you answered “No” to most of these questions, it can be assumed that your current policy or lack thereof, is not performing to promote continued process improvements and most likely is not supporting your efforts to recruit or retain top talent.
Moreover, if you could greatly reduce the time spent each week reviewing expectations or addressing general questions, would you? The fact is, dealing with employee questions as they arise, on the fly, or as you run out to a business meeting across town, facilitates inconsistencies, may foster perceived favoritism or discrimination, and will create the need for increased documentation in order to “remember” the random decisions which were made.
Bottom line, make it a priority in 2009 to get the most out of your policies and make policy perform for your company. With one quarter of your policy needing to be a restatement and explanation of common employment practices and laws to include equal employment opportunity declaration; identification of federal, state, and local taxes to be deducted from paychecks; definition of employee classification (exempt or non-exempt); requirements for Family Medical Leave eligibility; and deadly weapons, diversity, and sexual harassment policies, the remainder should be customized to meet your specific business needs.
Conversely, before formal implementation, institute manager and supervisory training in the administration of policies and further their understanding of the importance of employee commitment and adherence to company policy. Also, make measurement of any newly designed policy a requirement. Just as on-boarding is vital to the success of a new employee, assessment of the effectiveness and administration of any new policy should be conducted within six months of implementation and thereafter at least once annually. Whereas, if a policy was implemented that does not address business objectives or is not conducive to the work environment; it should be revised or possibly even eliminated. Of course, federal and state laws need to be upheld.
Smart HR is Smart Business. Therefore, elucidate that streamlined expectations, standardized methods, and working toward common goals will greatly enhance the organization’s ability to remain competitive and continue to offer a positive work environment for all employees.
