The need to create, update and educate Employees on workplace policies
Workplace policies are the rules and expectations that a company has of its employees, which can not be found in an employment contract or enterprise agreement.
As the policies tell employees what they can and can not do, policies will usually assist in building, or changing, the workplace culture. For example a uniform policy can reflect the image the company wants by detailing what the company expects employees to wear from suits and tie to a company uniform only.
However, even the best policies are useless unless employees are educated in the content and know where to find them. Therefore it is important to train new employees in the policies and procedures and to ensure regular ongoing training to all employees and managers to reinforce the requirements.
Different industries have different expectations and standards and it is important for employees to know and understand these differences. For a simplistic example, a restaurant will need strict food handling procedures, although this would not apply to banks.
Educating employees will also assist in reducing misunderstandings over the policies and the organisation’s expectations which can potentially save time and money by minimising legal claims, internal disputes or even staff turnover.
Employees not conforming to company policies, can be disciplined and ultimately terminated. Recent cases have shown that good policies can provide a valid reason to terminate or can minimise vicarious liability.
Finally, policies need to be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure they still comply with legislation and demonstrate the current company expectations.
The implementation of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and the national harmonisation of the workplace health and safety legislation are both reasons to review your policies to ensure they are compliant with the legislation.
Furthermore, policies may be ineffective if they are out of date or don’t keep up with social norms or technology. New policies may also need to be created such as a Social Media Policy.
Livingstones has a number of template policies and many are bundled into a package option. These packages are the core policy suite, secondary policy suite and human resource policy suites. Livingstones can also assist you in creating policies to meet a specific company need.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about creating or purchasing workplace policies, please call Travis Lancaster, Consultant on 38331200 for more information.
