If you’re one of the small business owners, it’s highly likely that you head the HR department yourself. There’s a lot of work you need to accomplish every day to ensure your business is running smoothly. Becoming a permanent human resource manager for your own business can be overwhelming to you.
There’s nothing you can afford to put on hold otherwise your business will suffer, and that’s where the challenge comes in. However, if you can categorize human resources policies into a few crucial areas, things will be simpler for you when it comes to preparing your human resources policies and procedures.
Table of Contents
Hr Management Policy
Human resources policies and procedures are managers and guidelines supervisors help to manage the staff in your business. Their role is to describe what the staff can and can’t do. The management or owner of the business sets these policies and procedures but they are governed by government laws.
In each critical area, you’re supposed to state all your policies and then, include procedures for your staff to adhere to the policies as well as what would happen in case one breaks the procedures. A proper set of HR policies and procedures is going to be a living record and will be guiding the operations of your business.
Nevertheless, that won’t mean that you’ll have to start all over again from scratch. You can find human resources policies and procedures online. Templates and examples are available as well. If you’re going through a spurt of growth, you can hire the services of a human resource consultant to formulate your policies and procedures.
If you choose to hire a consultant, you must ensure that you acquire an e-copy to allow you to update it whenever changes happen.
Important Components For Human Resource Policies
One of the most crucial roles of human resources to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal laws related to employment. Failure to follow these laws is going to leave the company at a high risk of being subject to lawsuits, which would be the last thing any business or company owners would want to hear.
Equal Chances Policy
Excellently written human resources policies and procedures are going to cover all the applicable laws and those that are relevant to your business or industry. One of the important components includes equal chances policy.
This policy prohibits discrimination in the workplace, which is a serious offence in the labour laws. The policy also ensures compliance with the set laws.
Recruitment & Hiring Of Workers
The next component is about recruiting and hiring of workers. It should cover all the aspects of fair recruitment and hiring as stated in the law. The other component is termination and offboarding. Here, all the at-will employment clauses any expectation, if there are any, are covered.
Code Of Conduct & Benefits
Another component is a code of conduct, where issues like dress code; sexual harassment, drug testing, and substance abuse are covered. Benefits are another component of human resource policies. In this component, issues such as holidays, vacations, health insurance, sick time, and family leave are covered.
Breaks, Company’s Tools & Equipment
Additionally, scheduling is also covered in human resource policies where breaks such as lunch periods are defined. The use of company equipment and tools is another element covered where things like the use of company internet and email are stipulated.
Other critical elements of human resource policies include the following:
- Disciplinary Actions
- Performance Appraisals
- Salaries & Bonuses
- Safety
- Confidentiality Agreement
- Conflict of Interest Statement
- Grievances
Conclusion
Hopefully, if you were stack somewhere regarding human resources policies and procedures, this article has given a hand on how to proceed. The various elements of human resource policies will also help you while drawing yours. Perhaps every element will be suitable for your case or you can include what you feel it’s relevant to your case. You could for example include in your list anti-bullying policies and info regarding LGBTQ rights.