List of Policies Every Thriving Company Should Have

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There is a list of policies every thriving company should have. High employee morale and engagement high will help drive your business’s success. Company policies can reinforce these elements and empower your company to thrive – particularly in case your business is simply getting began new business policies.

Whether you have opened your doorways with strong company policies in place otherwise you’ve gotten began without policies, you possibly can at all times enhance your office operations.

Before creating or updating your policies, you need to perceive the differing types, which of them your business wants, and find out how to implement them.

What are company policies?

Company policies are guidelines that govern a company’s code of conduct. They apply to each employee and employer, and so they might govern conduct each inside and outdoors the office. Company policies are often written policies included in your business’s employee handbook as per the list of policies every company should have.

Most employers who set company policies achieve this to make sure their employees have sure assured rights, probably strengthening morale. An office with agency company policies could also be much less vulnerable to employee dissatisfaction or, worse but, lawsuits from present or former employees.

Key takeaway: Company policies decide how employees and employers ought to work together, behave, and work each inside and outdoors the office.

What kinds of policies do corporations have?

There are many kinds of company policies that employers might set. These are a number of the most typical list of company policies and procedures.

Employee conduct policies

An employee conduct policy units the principles that each one staff should comply with throughout their employment with you. It governs on regular basis issues, reminiscent of office costume code, and more extreme infractions, reminiscent of sexual harassment. When it involves legally enforceable issues reminiscent of sexual harassment, an agency company policy banning (and defining) sexual harassment can protect your organization from legal responsibility ought a lawsuit come up.

Employee conduct policies can also handle these points, as per the list of policies every company should have:

Workplace security
Acceptable office behavior
Acceptable office computer and internet use
Abuses of energy, reminiscent of bullying of colleagues or subordinates
The definition of a hostile work atmosphere and find out how to keep away from it
Provisions for sustaining these policies throughout distant work or different out-of-office interactions

Employee conduct policies can also embrace routes for disciplinary action if employees fail to stick to them. In early instances of misbehavior, the disciplinary action could also be easy warnings, however, in later instances, the disciplinary action could also be termination, in the list of business policies.

Anti-discrimination and equal-opportunity policies

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sexual harassment within the office is a type of sex discrimination as per list of policies a company should have.

Anti-discrimination and equal-opportunity policies might go additional than employee conduct policies in firmly banning sexual harassment and different types of prejudiced behavior.

They can also ban team members, hiring managers, and management groups from interacting with colleagues in a different way primarily based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, faith, or different personal demographics, list of corporate policies.

Social media policies

A company’s social media policy can govern a number of kinds of employee behavior. It can obtain a uniform voice throughout the company’s social media channels.

A strong social media policy also can govern not solely employees’ social media use throughout work hours however what employees can and can’t say concerning the company each throughout and outdoors work hours.

Workplace safety policies

To shield your company’s office house, belongings, mental property, and cloud-based work instruments, you might need to implement office safety policies.

These policies designate the identification that employees will need to indicate to enter company property, particularly outdoors work hours. They can also decide how employees can signal out work gadgets, reminiscent of laptops in the event that they need to be taken from the office.

Workplace safety policies can also handle cybersecurity practices in a larger depth. Cybersecurity policies might decide how usually employees should change their passwords, mandate passwords of sure energy, and restrict employee use of personal gadgets introduced into the office from outdoors the office.

Attendance policies

Attendance policies decide the occasions when employees have to be present for work. They can also embrace provisions for distant work and procedures for informing supervisors of late arrivals or early departures. Time-off policies are likely to comprise a big subsection of company attendance policies.

A time-off policy ought to embrace provisions for sick go away, personal days, trips, voting goes away, and different types of work absence, according to the list of policies every company should have.

You ought to clearly state what number of days every employee will get for these forms of absences before probably dealing with disciplinary action or termination. (Many states have legal guidelines that decide how employees can accumulate sick go away and use it over the course of a calendar year, so lookup legal guidelines to your state before setting a policy.)

Substance abuse policies

Many employers mandate drug testing throughout not simply the job utility process however employment. Substance abuse policies clarify a company’s testing policies and can also ban employees from utilizing medicine, tobacco, or alcohol throughout work hours and even outdoors.

Expense policies

Sometimes, your employees should spend cash on your company’s behalf. Expense policies decide which classes of employee spending are reimbursable, how these bills ought to be tracked and recorded, and the way your company will repay employees for these bills.

Selling policies

If your company has an in-house gross sales team otherwise you rent unbiased contractors for gross sales functions, you might need to set up promoting policies.

Selling policies set up how your company’s salespeople ought to work together with present and potential shoppers. Whereas most company policies ought to be written, some specialists argue {that a} gross sales policy will be established verbally as per the list of policies every company should have.

Personnel policies

A personnel policy might mix threads from every one of the aforementioned kinds of policies whereas increasing on them.

It might cover sexual harassment, discrimination, attendance, a day off, safety, and substance abuse whereas additionally discussing employee compensation, advantages, rights to privacy, and strategies for submitting grievances. In some instances, personnel policy is fully synonymous with an employee handbook.

Key takeaway: Company policies can cover employee conduct, anti-discrimination measures, social media use, office safety, attendance, substance abuse, expensing, promoting, and personnel points.

How to find out the kinds of policies you need

To decide the kinds of policies you need, take a look at your team and office for downside areas. These areas ought to inform your new policy selections.

If you see that your employees are utilizing social media an excessive amount throughout work hours, you might need a social media policy.
If you battle to trace how your employees are utilizing your company cash, you might need an expense policy.
If your employees declare that different employees have sexually harassed them, you might need an employee conduct policy.
If your employees are struggling to reach the office on time, you might need an attendance policy.
If your gross sales operations are increasing, you might need a gross sales policy – and since your operation is increasing, a commonly written policy could also be superior to a verbal policy.

If you have already got related policies in place however these downside areas persist, you might need to modify your present policies as an alternative to making new ones.

Key takeaway: To decide the policies your company may need, establish downside areas and take into consideration how you would handle them.

How to develop company policies

Follow these steps to develop your company policies:

1. Set objectives.

We beforehand talked about that you need to establish downside areas to know which company policies to instate. Setting objectives is comparable: Determine what you propose to realize along with your new or modified company policies before setting them.

Include these objectives within the textual content of the written policy. In this method, your employees know why the policy exists and find out how to adhere to it. Ideally, your policies will err on the brief facet whereas remaining complete.

2. Build your policies from samples.

Even the best-intended company policies will not be profitable. That’s why you need to consult with pattern policies when crafting yours.

Surely, if in case you have a sure policy you imply to implement, then different corporations have carried out related policies – and you should use theirs to information yours.

3. Create the policy.

With your objectives in thoughts, pattern policies at your facet, and a dedication to maintaining them concise, you need to draft your policy.

Gather employees enter all through the creation process and modify your policies primarily based on these suggestions, according to the list of policies every company should have.

To guarantee a complete policy, consider some practical office eventualities and apply your policies to those occasions. If your written policy principally achieves the specified outcomes, then it ought to be good to go.

4. Get your management and authorized groups on board.

If you need your company’s management to log out in your new policies, you need to get this approval before absolutely implementing them. If you will have an authorized team, they need to be certain that your policies decrease your company’s legal responsibility in all kinds of eventualities.

5. Add the company policy to your employee handbook.

Once it is full, add the brand new policy to your employee handbook. Then, reissue the handbook to your employees, indicating the place they’ll discover the brand new policy. Tell your employees to learn it, inviting them to offer suggestions and ask questions.

6. Have employees signal it.

With the policy full and reviewed by employees, your employees need to sign up to verify that they’ve learned and understood it. Each employee ought to preserve a signed copy of the policy of their records.

Key takeaway: To craft efficient company policies, you need to set objectives, use samples as your information, and work along with your team to ascertain guidelines that everybody finds truthful, list of company policies.

What are examples of company policies?

Now that you already know the kinds of company policies, find out how to determine which policies you need and find out how to implement them, you might need to take a look at examples and templates of company policies to get a really feel for how one can craft yours. Here are a number of templates you might need to review:

Employee conduct policy
Anti-discrimination and equal-opportunity policy
Social media policy
Workplace security policy
Attendance policy
Substance abuse policy
Expense policy