Hi everyone
I’m building an HR function from scratch so could do with some advice if possible please!
To give you some background, I need to find out a (much!) more efficient and current way of storing policies for all employees to have access to, knowing these have been read and that they have ‘signed up’ to them (if this is necessary). But how? My old employer (a large corporate company with around 6000 employees) had all of the policies under an HR tab on the Intranet whereby anyone could access these at any time. But how these were ‘signed up to’ I really have no idea! I don’t recall ever being told to go on there and familiarise myself with them when I joined (which is understandable as there were 100’s!), or being given a summary of key policies i.e. dress code, smoking policy, the use of company equipment – phones, internet, etc… I honestly can’t recall this at all. The only thing that may have happened is that I needed to carry out a number of online compliance modules over the first month, and perhaps there was one included whereby I was directed to that site? I just don’t know. My current company doesn’t have an Intranet page, as we only have around 30 employees, but we have particular computer drives whereby all employees have access – so that might be the best alternative for me to use…
So, the questions begin…
Firstly, the company policies we do have are a) quite sparse, b) require a huge overhaul and c) are printed out for each new starter and put into a lever-arch file for them to read when they have the chance…! As you can imagine, this takes huge amounts of time to print, not to mention the amount of paper and are they ever read? I feel this is doubtful.
Secondly, when I carry out an induction, the current way which I’ve inherited and want to re-vamp, is to print certain policies i.e. the smoking policy, telephone/computer policy, etc. pass them to the new starter, ask them to sign and return them and then they are scanned onto their personnel file.
This is very dated method from my perspective, and I want to bring everything into this century.
So… A few questions if I may…
a) If I am to overhaul current policies, I’m assuming I need to give people notice of when these changes go live i.e. perhaps 3 months?
b) If I’m introducing new policies (there will be a fair few!) does the same apply?
c) For both of the above, am I simply able to for example, email out to the organisation, advise there’s a new/re-vamped policy in a particular location and ask them to ensure they familiarise themselves with it, as it will go live by XX date?
d) I’m looking to centralise all of the policies (old, new and re-vamped) into an area whereby all employees, old and new, can access these at their leisure i.e. the computer drive I mentioned earlier. The reason for this is they either have to hunt out their oversized file, or ask me to send them over a copy of the policy which isn’t a system I’m comfortable with should they i.e. wish to check the maternity policy but not speak to anyone about this as yet, etc.). How do I ensure that all employees are ‘signed up’ to these policies, without me getting them to physically sign each one and scan it onto their file? Can I advise in the induction/welcome pack where they can find the policies (i.e. a link to a central drive perhaps), ask them to familiarise themselves with the policies over a certain period of time i.e. 1-3 months, and I either assume they’ve done this, or I ask them to sign something to state this has been done?
I’d be really interested to find out how policy suites are managed in other organisations, and the processes that are followed to update old ones, introduce new ones, and how you know employees are ‘signed up’ – or perhaps this isn’t actually necessary…? Maybe they just need to know where to find them!
Thanks in advance – any advice would be greatly appreciated.
All the best,
Adele.
Replies
Hi Adele
This doesn't relate to policies, but previously when I've sent something to my team by email, such as minutes to a meeting or coaching summary, I have added a read receipt to the email so I get confirmation when the employee had read it. I then save this read receipt in their personal file and this has come in useful when i've needed to challenge something. Although the read receipt doesn't necessarily prove that the employee has read all of the email and attachments, it does provide proof that they have received the email, which has come in handy previously when someone had denied ever being sent something :)
I know this doesn't directly answer your questions above, but may be a good practice when sending out any policies by email.
Leanne
Hi Sarah
Thanks so much for getting back to me - I really do appreciate it.
I love the idea of the briefing sessions as I'm quite used to this approach from previous companies I've worked in, however as we are in a sales environment, getting everyone together (or even groups of people) is not a preferred method of communication by our Directors currently, so it's likely these will need to be covered off via email, etc. at present. I would like to implement this approach at a later date though, as I think it works really well too!
Perhaps we will opt for the following approach for the time being - 'saving to a place on the system is fine, and I see no reason why you could not send the employees an email asking them to reply to confirm that they have read and understood the policies and agree to comply with them. You could notify them by email if there are any changes' - as this should work for us. I will give this a go, as well as covering off where to locate our policies in the induction, etc.
Thanks you for confirming re: contractual policies, etc. too - that's really helpful.
Thanks again Sarah!
Adele :-)
My pleasure Adele that is what the Community is here for ;-)
Hi Adele
Sounds like you are getting everything in order, I guess the answers will depend, so in terms of a) it would depend whether the existing policies are contractual or not, if they are not there is no requirement to consult as such, however in the interests of employee engagement and dependant on where the employees are all based for 30 people could you hold a team brief session, or a couple of sessions and you could brief out the rationale for why the policies are changing, and run through the key high level policies. You could make a note of who attended and place this onto their file.
For smaller clients I have run sessions like this and made it interactive, e.g. icebreaker asking them to write down as many HR policies they can think of which has worked OK in the past (and let's face it it's getting to be quite a dry session), I then run through why we are changing the policies i.e. the business case changes to legislation, what has changed in terms of existing policies and then introduce the new ones. I've found these sessions have worked well and mean I can answer questions which employees have face to face.
If there is no intranet, saving to a place on the system is fine, and I see no reason why you could not send the employees an email asking them to reply to confirm that they have read and understood the policies and agree to comply with them. You could notify them by email if there are any changes.
You should also consider still running through the policies in the induction just to make sure that you pick up new employees.
This is only one way of approaching it and I am sure others will have ideas! So please do share.
I hope this helps
Sarah