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Communicate responsibilities, avoid conflicts, and improve workplace communication by writing clear policies and procedures
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Policies and procedures checklists are used to clearly write out your company’s HR policies on a variety of topics, from workplace safety to vacation policies to grievance procedures. Having these things well-defined avoids ambiguity and ensures that everyone is aware of proper conduct.
Table of contents
1. What needs to be included in your policies and procedures?
2. Policies and procedures best practices
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Body
2.3. End
3. Common types of policies and procedures
3.1. Code of conduct
3.2. Workplace safety policies
3.3. Grievance procedures
3.4 Discipline and termination policies
When writing out your policies and procedures, it is important to remember you’re writing documents for your employees to read. That means stick to clear, concise language and avoid phrasing that could come across as ambiguous, such as using the word “shall” to communicate a mandatory action.
You can improve the clarity of your documents by using shorter sentences, fewer words, and avoiding too much jargon. The goal of any policy or procedure is for your employee to be able to consistently apply it to any situation. With this in mind, each policy you write will include:
Your policies describe big-picture goals and standards for employee behavior. You need to write procedures, which describe how those standards will be met. Procedures detail the specifics of tasks associated with a given policy. Providing step-by-step instructions helps employees stay compliant with your policies, and gives you an easy way of measuring compliance.
The first part of a policies and procedures template should contain your policy titles, number, date of adoption, and a brief description of the policy. It is important that your policy title is clear and states what the policy addresses, and including a policy number helps file and track the document.
Include the date your policy goes into effect alongside its title. Lend the document a sense of authority by including a signature from the policymaker. Writing a short description of the policy helps give an idea of who it affects and who will be responsible for upholding it, which you will elaborate on later. Before elaborating, make sure to define any specialized terms that will appear elsewhere in the policy.
This will be the longest section of any policies and procedures template. Here is where you go into detail about the conditions which inspired the policy, as well as the expectations placed on employees. Start by writing the policy purpose, so that people understand why the policy is being implemented.
Now come up with a policy statement. Your policy statement will be the longest piece of the document, since it outlines what is expected from whom and when the policy applies. Thus, you want to make it as specific as possible so that questions about when to follow the policy are minimal.
After this, define the policy’s scope, or the people within an organization that it applies to. Usually, those will be the same people responsible for upholding the policy, but not always.
The last part of your policies and procedures template should contain step-by-step instructions for how to fulfill the expectations laid out in the policy statement. For example, if the policy relates to office safety and security, the steps could be:
Finally, include contact information so employees have a place to direct any questions that may arise about your policies. You might also consider providing documentation for related policies or guidelines so that employees have a policy manual to refer to.
Companies draft HR policies to address a range of business and employee needs, from keeping a clean office to data security to managing accidentsin the workplace. These are some of the most important areas to apply concrete policies to.
A code of conduct is a near-universal document in businesses. It outlines expectations for interactions between employees as well as for employee behavior in relation to the company. Think of a code of conduct as a policy manual for how employees should act at work.
These documents can cover:
Having a concrete workplace safety policy in place is a necessary means of defining your company’s legal responsibilities regarding employee safety. These documents detail ways in which employees are protected from harm during their work.
A workplace safety policy could address:
A code of conduct is vital to ensure everyone at your business is aware of how to act at work. But sometimes, there are conflicts between an employee and the employer. Articulating a clear grievance procedure will help resolve these situations in a manner agreeable to everyone.
Your grievance procedure should cover:
Employees and employers need to know what happens if a given policy is not followed, which is why discipline and termination policies are essential. These help enforce compliance by informing employees not only of potential consequences, but also of their rights in the event of disciplinary action.
These policies should detail:
Use Lumiform to draft concise and intuitive policies and procedures specific to your company needs. You can adapt an existing template (link to template when created) to suit your needs or use our form builder to write your own custom HR materials. And, since the templates are digital and mobile-friendly, employees can review your policies easily from anywhere.
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