I am not a fan of lots of policies! Yes, I am an HR professional who doesn’t think it is necessary to have policies for everything. In fact in an ideal world, we wouldn’t need policies at all, we are all adults going to work to do a job in exchange for (mostly) money and our employers should trust us to do it. The reality is most people do want to do a good job and will act in a professional manner, however, we all know that not everyone will. The trouble is we try and put policies in place to account for every eventuality and use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. We penalise everyone to manage the odd person who might be behave badly, rather than starting from a position of trust and managing by exception.
Businesses often end up with a myriad of policies, which no-one reads just in case someone does something wrong. Worse still there are some policies, where you just wonder what the purpose of them is at all. A case in point, I recently saw a post on LinkedIn talking about a ‘tattoo policy’! The point of this policy was to dictate that employees should cover up tattoos in the workplace, why this should be an issue and why is a policy necessary? Now if someone has a particularly offensive tattoo it would be reasonable to expect that to be covered up, how many people would that apply to though and surely a conversation would suffice?
Legal requirement
Some policies are required by law, disciplinary, grievance and health and safety. In these instances, it is important that employees understand the process of being able to raise a complaint and how it will be dealt with or how a disciplinary process will be conducted and what possible outcomes there may be. Similarly having a whistleblowing policy is a good idea, again so that employees understand what it means, that they will be protected and how to escalate any concerns. However, most policies aren't required by law and in fact if you have a policy in place you will need to follow it, often in tribunals, employers have failed to follow their own policies leading to judgements against.
Policy instead of management?
The trouble is I believe managers become over reliant on policies, they want a process for how to deal with every issue and problem. This just isn’t possible when dealing with human beings, you never know what might happen and even if you think you have seen it all, someone will suddenly do something completely unexpected. A common sense approach is often all that is needed. What do your managers need to make them feel confident when dealing with staff issues or conversations? The answer isnt more policies.
So how can you reduce your policies?
Have a review of what you have in place and question why you have it and whether you really need it. Dress code policy as an example, many companies now just have a statement which says dress for your day. If you are attending a formal client meeting a smarter outfit is probably required (dependant on your industry), if you are working from home then something comfortable will do, if you are in the office maybe jeans and a t-shirt is acceptable. I saw a comment which said if you look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you can get away with it, it probably isn’t suitable.
Process instead?
Ask yourself whether a process will do, for example in the event of a fire, make sure employees know the evacuation procedure and where to meet. Annual leave, everyone knows how much holiday they get, make sure the process to book time off is understood, what happens if holiday cannot be authorise and can you carry holiday over. Do you really need a working from home policy? Think about how you will practically manage the policies you have and how realistic they are. For example a blanket ban on mobile phones probably isn’t necessary or realistic.
Culture
How you operate as a business and the example you set is key. A business I worked for had a strict dress code policy, however the senior leadership team wore jeans. This is a tiny example and one that seems relatively inconsequential, but employees notice and it creates a culture of one rule for them and another for us. It is often the small things which have the biggest impact. What message does this send to your employees? Often policies get put in place for a reason which over time no-one can remember. Things change and your policies should evolve. Do you still need them and are they fit for purpose? How can you introduce a culture of trust?
Final thoughts.
Policies do have a place, and some are necessary to make sure there is clear and fair process in place. If you have policies in place for the sake of it they become meaningless and they will be ignored which is worse than not having them at all. Ask yourself, how you can operate a culture of trust, transparency and consistency where everyone knows what is expected, they are treated like adults and you don’t need a long list of dos and don’ts. Policies should give a structure and guidance, properly embedded in an organisation they are a great framework. However, you don’t need policies for everything and should avoid an over reliance on them to manage staff.
