Introducing New Policies

Policies on Staff Management and Administration
D P BABU, Strategy Consultant, India, Member
Please remember that policies are parameters to inculcate confidence in staff that all are being treated alike. Policies also link HR with the rest of the organization. Hence your business policies need to focus on society at large since your organization is an economic component of society. Your personnel policies need to address human concerns. Your finance policies need to maximize stakeholders wealth. Your marketing policies need to facilitate satisfaction of changing needs of customers. Keeping in mind the social accountability requirement is a basic foundation to all policies.

HR Policies
Kennedy Amimo Akatsa, HR Consultant, Kenya, Member
Hi Lydia, in compiling the HR policy for your company you need to look at the following things:
1. HR practices in sectors related to yours
2. Past HR practices in your company
3. New labour laws
In the framework of the above you then need to analyze your company's business strategy (vision, mission and objectives) and develop policies that will motivate the staff to meet all these. The policies should touch on:
1. How you recruit and select staff based on the skills, attitudes and competencies you require
2. How you train and develop your staff
3. Performance and reward management
4. Change management
5. Discipline procedure and grievance handling mechanism
5. Promotions

Introducing New Policies
Olumuyiwa Ajayi
I would say you need to ask yourself some basic questions around policy:
1. Have an understanding of the term "policy".
2. What do you want the policy to do?
3. Why do you need the policy in place?
4. How can we draw up a policy or a group of policies?
Having achieved these, your next step will be to focus on the area mentioned "policies on staff management and administration"
I believe this can be achieved looking out for expected behaviors and ways of doing things which become the acceptable culture upon validation by the stakeholders and the employees.
Behavioral tips such as expected manners (having respect for one another) this can be linked to your company values; dress code - do you operate a business/causal environment? Etc.
However, Kennedy Amino from Kenya has provided you with areas you can look at and improve on. Please note that policies are developed as a result of circumstances or situations that presents itself. Regards

Implementing Policies
Tatia L Flowers Hunter, Human Resources Student, United States, Member
Hello Lydiah, always be sure to go through these important steps in the implementation of the policies for the organization:
1) The law -- be sure that you are up to date with any labor laws in your country.
2) Form a strategic business plan for the whole organization.
3) Make sure that the the policies that are in place are reviewed by a qualified person of the laws.
4) Make sure that the policies are feasible to follow for management and staff.
5) Make sure that the policies meet ethics and expectations of the business plans to help the company growth.

Developing Policies
Julie Martin, HR Consultant, Bangladesh, Member
Policies are guidelines that direct behaviour of staff members. Look at it as documenting the do's and don'ts of the company. Start by thinking of "the ideal situation" in different areas that need guidelines, then adjust to the match your organisations structure and culture. Make it a participatory process, include staff members already in the different areas, they are a richest sources of ideas you will ever find. Being part of the process creates ownership and implementation is much easier.

Functional Approach to Policy Making in Organization
BENGAT K. JOSEPH, HR Consultant, Kenya, Member
Hi Lydia, the way you approach policy making in organization varies depending on type of organization.
By examining functional areas of organization one can develop policies governing such areas. Functional areas will cover production and processing, HR, finance, marketing, sales, research, planing and development, training and career development among others.
Though these departments are under the same organization, it is important to note that each operations has its own peculiarities and the policy developed should be linked to operations in that particular area which in turn should be linked to the organizations missions and visions.
This calls for clarity of values with regard to how these policies will be implemented and how it will affect both the management and employees.
Most companies go for policy development without providing the "how" part of it: how will the policy that is developed affect the management, employees, relationships and operations; how will it affect the core business activities, that is synergy.