Clear HR policies and procedures are important when running a successful organisation, and for managing a diverse group of people. However, policies and procedures can become ineffective or inappropriate as organisations change and expand their systems. Therefore it is important to ensure that they are reviewed on a regular basis to identify areas for improvement. Centric HR is here to discuss exactly how to review HR policies and procedures as well as when these policies should be reviewed.
So, how do you review HR policies & procedures? To review your HR policies & procedures you need to follow these steps: complete a HR policy audit, complete HR policy competitor research, create a HR Policy Development Committee, collaborate with managers, and apply them to the induction of new employees.
Keep reading to develop an understanding about why it is important to review your HR policies and procedures, including how you can outsource this process to a trusted HR company.
From the identification of outdated HR policies to formatting new HR policies and communicating them to your team, Centric HR are here to provide our recommendations on how to successfully review your HR policies and Procedures.
The first step in completing a review of HR policies and procedures would be to complete a full audit of the organisational policies. This will help to identify which policies are working successfully, as well as which ones are outdated. This can also help with identifying policies that are proving to not be effective enough, which allows for problems to arise when implementing them.
At this point it can also be useful to complete research into how your organisation’s competitors handle particular HR issues, and what HR policies they have in place. This can be helpful because it may identify strategies that you have not considered before, or even policies that you prefer over your own. Using this competitor research to cross reference against your HR policy audit can help make your HR policy review more accurate.
Once you have decided upon the changes you wish to make to your organisation’s HR policies, it could be a good idea to establish a HR policy development team. This team would be the people who focus on creating the policy documentation, guidelines and regulations to ensure that the policies are easy to understand for the rest of your team.
Once the HR policies documentation and guidelines have been confirmed, the next step would be to go through them with various managers from across the organisation. It is very important that the managers understand the changes and additions that have been made to the HR policies so that they can implement them accurately and fairly within their individual teams.
When your managers have a good understanding of the new and updated HR policies it is a good idea to implement them into the new onboarding process. In doing so, you are ensuring that the HR policies are understood and applied everytime you employ someone new, which is important for transparency between employees and senior management. Furthermore, it will also ensure that staff are aware what to expect from the organisation in situations where clear HR policy structure is required.
HR policies and procedures play an important role in determining the HR strategy of an organisation, and this can change over time depending on new technologies, new staff members, and even new aspects of the business. Furthermore, HR policies provide guidance on how to manage staff members at different levels, and with changes in regulations or economic conditions it may be that the original policies that were set in place are no longer appropriate.
It is very important to consistently review HR policies and procedures to ensure that there are clear and fair strategies in place to help with the management of people and the issues they face with regards to their employment. Ensuring your staff members are updated on these procedures will guarantee that everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities as well as alleviating any unnecessary confusion in challenging times.
For example, since the pandemic in 2019 a lot of organisations have begun to switch to flexible office hours whereby staff can work a certain number of days from home. Before the pandemic, this may not have been an option for some organisations, and would not have been part of their HR policies. This is a prime example of where a HR policy has become outdated and is not coherent with the growth of company culture. Without reviewing these policies it may be easy for staff members to abuse vague policies with regards to working from home.
Furthermore, there has been a huge increase in the number of people suffering with mental health issues and this becoming more recognisable to organisations. As a result, organisations are having to address their HR policies with regards to well-being and ending employment. Whether it be managing employees’ mental health whilst they are working, or processing their resignation due to mental health, some organisations may not have previously addressed this issue within their HR policies and procedures.
There are no laws that determine when you have to review your HR policies, but it is recommended that you review them annually, or at least every 3 years. Even though there are no regulations around this, it is in your best interest to review your HR policies on a regular basis to ensure that they are up to date with new laws, changes in company culture and processes.
If you fail to review your HR policies annually you may find that there are changes to how your organisation works which are not addressed in your HR policies. If a staff member chooses to query or protest against a change that has been made you will not be able to refer to company policy to help prove your intentions or support you through the process.
Reviewing your HR policies and procedures may seem complicated, time consuming and overwhelming. As a result, it may seem more appealing to outsource the task and get some support from a trusted HR company.
Centric HR provides a variety of HR services including HR outsourcing, HR consultancy and even business support. For more information about HR policy reviews including relevant advice and the potential for Centric HR to manage or guide you through this process, feel free to get in touch today by clicking here.
