As April brings another round of employment law changes, it’s a good time to review HR policies and procedures. Jane Bradshaw-Jones explains how ‘policy hygiene’ can be a useful approach.
Outdated HR policies pose a significant risk to both an organisation and its employees. Not only does legal non-compliance risk hefty fines, it also risks demotivating employees, hindering talent acquisition, and stifling innovation.
One way to avoid this is to embrace proactive “policy hygiene” – a collaborative approach to harmonising HR policies with legal requirements, business objectives, and the evolving needs of your workforce. By considering the needs of all functions, HR can create more comprehensive and effective policies.
What are the risks?
Outdated and inadequate HR policies not only pose legal risks that can damage a company’s reputation but can also lead to heightened scrutiny from regulatory bodies.
HR policies and changes
Policies that contain biased language or fail to consider current diversity and inclusion standards can expose a business to legal claims, for example, or outdated parental leave policies could deter working parents from staying at the company.
Collaborative efforts between HR and other departments are crucial to ensure policies are legally compliant, strategically aligned, and reflective of contemporary working styles.
Working with other functions will also ensure that the nuances and specific rules of different areas are considered.
By regularly reviewing and updating HR policies, seeking guidance from HR professionals and legal advisors, actively gathering employee feedback and effectively communicating policy changes, organisations can promote a culture of fairness, inclusivity and compliance while enhancing their ability to attract and retain top talent and adapt to changing market conditions.
Employee engagement
Robust policies are essential as they are the foundation of organisational culture, ensuring legal compliance, mitigating risks, and providing a framework for employee support and empowerment.
However, if policies haven’t been updated to recognise the evolving needs of the modern workforce, or don’t reflect the culture of the company, they can demotivate employees.
HR plays a crucial role in ensuring policies positively reflect the organisation and are written with inclusive language. Does your terminology reflect the fact that you may have more remote workers now, for example?
Similarly, policies that have traditionally referenced genders, such as maternity/paternity and breastfeeding policies may need to be reviewed to ensure they include inclusive language. Working closely with diversity and inclusion teams, and engaging representatives from marginalised groups, will help to ensure policies remain inclusive.
Recruitment and retention
When policies aren’t reflective of the company culture, this can be a factor in high employee attrition, and a company with poor retention may be open to negative employee reviews that impact the potential to attract new talent.
To address these challenges, HR must drive engagement with department heads and managers across the business to ensure policies meet the needs of the workforce and are well understood and implemented by managers.
Keep policies clear, concise, and easy to understand for everyone in the organisation and regularly review policies with input from different departments to ensure they remain relevant and effective.
Policies that reflect the nuances and needs of different functions within an organisation will help all colleagues feel like they work for one company rather than being part of a single team or department.
Policies that reflect the nuances and needs of different functions within an organisation will help all colleagues feel like they work for one company rather than being part of a single team or department.”
There will some be areas of the business that feel that they are treated less favourably than others, but this isn’t true. By ensuring that teams know that they are ‘seen and heard’ and covered by the same policies and have the same opportunities as other colleagues within the business, this will help employees understand that they are working towards the same goal.
The business case
Practising proactive policy hygiene is even more imperative right now, with the emergence of new legislation in employment law. Furthermore, measuring the impact of policies provides valuable insights for ongoing improvement and adjustment.
Conducting a comprehensive evaluation across all business functions, addressing these aspects, is crucial for establishing a robust and compliant policy framework in an organisation.
Businesses could include ‘policy fit’ questions in annual employee satisfaction surveys or ensure onboarding surveys include questions about how well company policies reflect expectations of the company. This can help to draw out areas that need to be addressed.
Three ways to build policy hygiene
1. Have you reviewed your policies in the last six or 12 months?
Policies should be regularly assessed to ensure they comply with current legal requirements and industry best practices. Analyse your existing policies to see if they comprehensively address your company’s needs across all functions. Are there areas where new policies are needed, or existing ones that require revision?
2. Is there clear alignment with your organisational values and objectives?
The second step focuses on the creation or refinement of policies to ensure seamless alignment with organisational values and objectives. The overarching goal is to establish a cohesive policy framework that complements the broader business strategy.
Establish clear communication channels between HR and other departments. This allows for ongoing dialogue and feedback on the effectiveness of policies.
Creating easy to digest and understand policies is key because policies are often the first perception a new recruit will have of the organisation’s culture. The framework should also include regular policy reviews to ensure they remain relevant and to help orchestrate continuous improvement.
3. Do you have a comprehensive roll-out plan?
Implementation is as crucial as creation, so ensuring employees are aware of and can easily access policies is vital across the business.
Managers also need to be well versed in their responsibilities to ensure policies are embedded effectively, so regular refresher training and signposting policies is important to success.
By working together in these ways, HR can play a central role in ensuring that everyone in the organisation is aware of company policies, understands their role in implementing them, and is working towards the same business objectives.
Elevating policy hygiene and aligning each policy with industry best practices will position organisations for sustained success.
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