POOR WORKPLACE POLICY MAKING – A DANGER TO BUSINESS

Too often, policies are exercises in bureaucratic box ticking – there for the sake of it. They’re not always user friendly, and probably most people have never read them, because they’ve assumed one, or all of the following:

1) IRRELEVANT – Workplace Policies are seemingly boring and basically irrelevant to the day to day realities of their job.

2)  OBSTACLE – They actually act as an obstacle to doing good work, in terms of time, and process (ie it’s faster and simpler to go AROUND the workplace policy)

3) WEAPONS – Policies are seen to be used by management (especially HR and senior Management) as “weapons” or “shields” to deal with people they don’t like or feel uncomfortable dealing with, or to “catch them out”. This undermines their usefulness and value in helping people to perform well, and/or dealing with issues constructively

4) LUXURY – Small organisations think creating workplace policies are a luxury or unnecessary.

These are signs of Poor Policy making. They are really just a waste of a few hundred trees, and don’t help your organisation. In fact, they can cause a lot of damage or place you at significant risk.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS  OF BAD WORKPLACE POLICIES?

• They can lead to long term systemic problems, that aren’t immediately obvious- to  borrow an analogy from the human spine, by the time you start seeing/feeling symptoms, significant damage has already occurred.
• Poor policy documentation leads to confusion, over-exertion, inefficiency, and, often, people doing things that are not good for the overall interests/goals of the organisation.
• Poor policies can also create difficulties for managers in addressing difficult employees and/or performance issues.
• This ultimately puts the organisation at physical risk – literally. This can take the form of reduced performance, reduced morale, increased rates of injury, turnover or absenteeism, or legal issues (harassment, bullying, non compliance, health and safety breaches.
• There is increased obligation upon employers to comply with the obligations of the Fair Work Act, and other related legislation. As recent media coverage demonstrates, there is ever-increasing scrutiny on organisations to make sure they get these business fundamentals right.

An effective workplace policy will offer a business a functional reference for guidelines of how to better business practices and adhere to compliance. For more information on what a good work place policy can do, see our Workplace HR Policy Suite.

WE WANT TO HELP YOUR ORGANISATION TO BE AS HEALTHY AS POSSIBLE

INTERESTED IN A WORKPLACE SPINAL CHECK?

Get in touch with us now and email miranda@canopyhr.com.au