A business must have the department intact for its smooth functioning and future development. One of the essential departments of any business is the HR department, as it takes care of all the policies, procedures, employees and smooth business functioning.
If the HR policies are appropriately set, it ensures consistency, fairness, structure, control and reasonableness to all employees.
Many HR policies are required to comply with employment legislation. This makes the employees and company know about their responsibilities respectively.
The mandatory HR policies
If a business has policies and procedures in place, it is in a situation to deal with any unforeseen situation. Issues that arise in the workplace can be handled with the right strategy and run the business efficiently.
In any small business, HR policies and procedures play a significant role and offer numerous benefits. Generally, HR policies define the role of employees, business processes, principles to be followed by different departments, hiring and termination of employees and many other essential things.
Small businesses mostly fall short of funds, so they borrow business loans for bad credit unsecured terms. Hence, they should be more careful in following these HR policies to avoid any failure in their business life.
Basic HR policies that every business should follow
Disciplinary and Dismissal policy
Disciplinary policy is very important in any business and is the solution to every problem that arises in the workplace.
This policy ensures fair and appropriate treatment to every employee, and every employee also provides discipline. The law also requires discipline policy to be implemented in every organization.
Grievance Policy
If a business assumes that they are offering the best to their employees and there is no problem from the employee’s side, the business needs to rethink. The grievance policy ensures that if an employee has a problem, they should know whom to contact and what is the proper procedure.
It is an essential tool for the employees to get their grievances addressed. Also, the business should be fair in dealing with employees complaints and must take a fair decision.
Health and Safety Policy
Health and Safety policy ensures safety at the workplace and makes the employees feel safe. Also, it states the responsibilities of all the employees to maintain a safe working environment.
As a business, you should make your employees aware of all the safety procedures and what to do in case of an emergency.
For example, if there is a fire on the premises or someone gets injured, what steps should be taken immediately to get relief, i.e. who are the first aid trainers or how to extinguish the fire.
Equal Opportunities
Equal opportunity policy ensures the absence of discrimination at the workplace and makes the employees feel treated in a comparable manner.
For example, many businesses discriminate the employees on the basis of gender, marital status, disability, religion, race and many other factors. An equal opportunities policy restricts employers to discriminate the employees. This helps the business to create a fair play environment.
Sickness and leave of absence
Employees can be absent from work, and there can be a variety of reasons for it. For example, there can be the reason for sickness or a sudden event or a planned holiday. If the employees know the rules of absenteeism and what is the procedure for applying leaves.
Also, the employees should know the number of leaves that they can apply for in a specific duration. The employees should also know the benefits of all the leaves that they are entitled to.
Flexibility
In any organization, employees should have the leverage to work in a flexible environment. There has to be a flexible working policy so that the employees can have some kind of flexibility.
Flexibility includes aspects such as work timings, work patterns etc. If the policy is intact, it becomes easier for the employee to adjust to the company rules.
Training and Development
Training and development is an essential aspect of business success. With the proper training, employees can perform better and in an efficient manner.
With the training and development policy, employees get a chance to enhance their skills and support other employees as well. Also, they get clarity on their roles that make their job easier.
Bullying and Harassment policy
If there is any act of harassment in an organization, the employee can be held responsible and is liable for legal action. There should be zero tolerance for harassment and bullying at the workplace.
Everyone should be treated respectfully. To reduce the risk of harassment, the bullying and harassment policy should be intact and followed effectively. Also, with the right approach, it can mention bullying and harassment in clear words for everyone to understand, and what does it include?
The employees should be clear that getting into bullying and harassment is followed by severe consequences. For example, if an employee has borrowed bad credit loans with no guarantor and cannot pay them back. The lender is harassing him.
In this, the business is not responsible for the harassment as an outsider is involved. But in the case of two employees within the organization, the business is liable to take out a solution and maintain a harmonious environment to work.
Code of conduct
A code of conduct policy defines the acceptable and expected behavior out of employees when at the workplace. This policy covers the aspects such as ethical values, punctuality, dress code, use of mobile phones and other aspects of behavior.
It also states the consequences of these behaviours are not followed. These rules should be communicated to every employee at the time of joining.
Conclusion
As a part of the HR team, it is your responsibility and prerogative to inform all the employees and keep them updated with changing rules and procedures.
Having a clear understanding of the policies helps a business grow in no time and sets it apart from the crowd. It is mandatory to inform all the employees about these policies as soon as possible to avoid any confusion and misinterpretation.
