HR Policies & Procedures

Why introduce HR policies?

Businesses introduce HR policies for very different reasons. These can include:

• the need to comply with existing or new legislation.
• A desire to develop a more formal and consistent approach to meet their needs as they grow and develop, for example, with regards to flexible working.
• to follow the latest developments in effective people management, for example, wellbeing.
• dealing with internal changes.
• to keep up with competitors, for example, policies may be reviewed in order to attract or retain employees, particularly in a tight labour market.

Each organisation will need policies that are adapted to suit their own purpose and to fit with their sector, culture and structure.

The culture of the organisation and the complexity of the policies will influence how a policy is introduced. For example, when it comes to communication, hard copies could be given to employees or put on notice boards, or 'soft' copies circulated by email or placed on an intranet. The communication process should be tailored to the organisation.

What policies should we have?

The type of organisation will dictate what policies are in place. As companies grow and develop, they need to introduce policies to ensure a consistent and fair approach - and to avoid wasting time by having crises dealt with in an ad hoc way.