HR POLICY
Like Quality Policy, each organization must have its own HR Policy. It is the duty of the HR Managers to design HR Policy for their organization. Drafting a HR Policy is not an easy job whereas it requires lot of inputs to be incorporated. The moment somebody reads your HR Policy, he will come to know the values and culture of your organization.
For outside agencies such as Banks, Quality Auditors, Foreign Collaborators and long associated customers may want to verify your HR Policy before making any agreement with your organization. For the employees also, they will tune their sub-cultures according to the requirement of the HR Policy. Actually the words in HR Policy will speak about the culture, values, vision and enjoy working and how these are practiced and proved by all employees in the organization in the same uniform and consistent wave length. After all, business is run by People only. Hence to get strong and long survival in the competitive markets, HR Policy is a Must and it should be practised.
In many organizations, they do not have HR Policy and even if they have, it is out-dated one. In real spirit it is not followed and evidenced. It is the prime duty of the HR Managers to supply data to the top management periodically as to how HR Policy is practiced consistently in the organization. Quantify it and supply with data. For example, if the word “Culture” is mentioned in the Policy, HR Manager must collect the data on sub-culture practices of the departments and co-relate it with core culture of the organization. If “Employee Satisfaction or Development” is added in the HR Policy, then data must be collected on Satisfaction or Development.
WHO PREPARES HR POLICY:
It is the initial duty of HR Manager to draft HR Policy. He must consult the Line Managers on various inputs to be added in the Policy. Also he must consult the top Management on various important words to be incorporated such as culture, values, development, vision etc. Highly experienced and matured HR Manager will spell immediately the expectations of the top Management on all these areas. It is always better to frame HR Policy by their own employees instead of hiring a Consultant for this purpose. Hence HR Manager must collect inputs from the following:
- Top Management (Last Step will be MD)
- Line Managers
- Sub-ordinates
- Regular Customers and Vendors
WHO APPROVES THE HR POLICY:
Final Draft of HR Policy will be vetted and approved by Board of Directors and ultimately MD/Chairman of the organization. HR Policy Practices must be percolated downwards and in the same wave length it moves in any direction. HR Practices must not be deviated or disturbed at any cost for someone’s whims and fancies. HR Policy is for the Organisation and it views from top to bottom in the same density without any iota of slight bend.
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HR POLICY FRAMING/MONITORING COMMITTEE
A Committee must be formed representing Members from all Sections of Employees. The Duty of the Committee is to
- Frame new Policy
- Amend the existing Policy if required
- Review its effectiveness
- Training the employees to mould
- Quantification
- To find out the deviation and reasons thereof
Once a while you may include your regular Customers/Vendors/Well-wishers to give feed-back on your HR Policy. Particular attention must be given to the new employees who join the organization with different set of cultures. Also the Freshers.
Inputs required for preparing HR Policy:
- MD’s Vision (Business Growth thro People)
- Organisation Values
- Culture Practices
- Business Ethics
- Importance of Employee Role
- How organization taking care in employees
- Enjoy Working conditions
- Confidence from both Management and Employees
- How one grows with the Organisation
- How employee satisfaction is converted into end product/service
- How Customer/vendors feel employee satisfaction thro product/service
- How the Society values the organization thro employees
- Data on Motivational/Communication practices
- Any other data relevant as per your organization requirement
Collect all data and statements from all the levels and match it with MD’s vision. Find the differences. Fill up the gaps with Training/Induction/Counselling. Monitor the levels of HR Policy level which should be uniform and also in the same direction. It is like a lead bird flying with group of birds in the sky in the same direction and same speed to achieve one goal. Work under the work culture of “One Team One Goal”
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INDUCTION AND TRAINING ON HR POLICY
HR Policy is an Open Statement. It must be displayed at important places like Quality Policy of your organization. Training/Re-training/Induction Programmes must be conducted time and again to monitor the consistency of HR Policy. For this first-of-all, HR Manager must be a role model for the HR Policy Statement and also the Line Managers. Effectiveness of the Policy must be reviewed of and on at the level of senior level and middle level. They are the important Managers who represents Policy Statement thro their words and action. HR Manager must design an Induction Programme for new employees/Freshers. He must train thoroughly on the words and purpose of it as said in HR policy. Check list must be prepared for monitoring the statement as stipulated in HR Policy.
PERIODIC REPORT
HR Manager must send Report on HR Practices with evidences to the Management, may be month-wise. All data must have the evidences. Nowhere it is manipulated to satisfy the Top Management. It is better to submit the facts rather to satisfy the seniors with false data. It is a good feedback for top management to correct HR Policy as per need of the present trend.
OBJECTIVES:
Once Policy is approved, HR Manager must prepare the objectives of the HR Policy. He must evolve Procedures as to how to achieve the goals of HR Policy thro action and words. It is identical to Quality Policy as signed by MD and monitored thro Systems, Procedures and Work Instructions. Quality Audit is there and like-wise, during HR Audit, effectiveness of HR Policy must also be measured.
Sub-Culture Practices:
HR must help the Line Managers to frame sub-culture (Department’s) without deviating the core culture of the organization. For example, maximum house-keeping is one of the sub-cultures in Production and Maintenance Department whereas Service-oriented approach is a sub-culture in HR, Accounts, Maintenance and Materials. Transparency in communication is the core culture whereas sharing knowledge is sub-culture in the Departments. Hence HR Manager must understand to spell the sub-cultures of the Departments/employees at various levels and match it with core culture of the Organisation/Top Management. Weightage may vary on sub-culture practices, but when it is added to the core culture, weightage gets neutralized.