HOW POLICIES SHOULD FUNCTION

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Most organisations have company policies, but they sometimes resemble the small print on an insurance policy.  Employees know they are important and necessary, but the policies can be dry and uninspiring.  They serve their specific purpose, but are rarely used in a more holistic way: to set the foundation and framework of the company’s way of working. 

 

Policies are important tools for communicating about the core standards of a company.  But they are not written with this intent for two reasons:

 

• Communications from senior management are typically more organic, in the moment, addressing the latest operational issue, or financial results, or what is happening in the wider business sector.  Employees are essentially following a ‘news feed’ from senior management. As a consequence, communications are unstructured and not focussed on the underlying standards and objectives of the company. ​

 

• ​Policies are tricky documents to write.  They can become a mix of statements and standards with a lack of real clarity.  This is sometimes caused during the course of producing policy documents when different people are contributing on points of detail, without an overarching perspective, leading to a muddled text.  Senior management will often be involved, but as drafting and re-drafting progresses, the focus shifts to simply finishing the policy and moving on to other issues.  

 

Policy documents will often become wordy and muddy.  The opportunity to clarify the intentions and standards of the business, is lost. 

 

When the writing is finished, the policy will be quickly communicated across the organisation via email or similar.  Employees give the new policy a quick scan and quickly ‘delete’ the information from their brain as they move on to browse the latest news on their phone.  

 

How policies should function

 

Company policies are your secret weapon.  They are an opportunity to explain and clarify to all managers and staff a clear understanding of your company, its purpose and ways of working.  

 

The best company policies, in clear and easy to read language, explain:

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• Your company's mission and objectives

 

• The standards you want your company to operate (internally and for customers)​​

 

• Who has the key responsibilities for delivery, usually senior managers and specific teams​

 

• ​How delivery of your company objectives and standards are going to be monitored, and kept on track

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Company policies have two over-riding functions.  They deliver clarity on all the above, and they act as an ‘action plan’ for senior management.

 

Company policies are your secret weapon because they speak to all managers and employees with one voice, with clear instructions, on how you want your company to succeed.  But they need to be written correctly.  Simple, clear, actionable.  They need to address the key standards for success.  They need to be communicated with commitment:

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• Circulated to all staff, with a message from the senior management team that these are the company standards

 

• Circulated with instructions that staff should read and discuss them in teams to ensure understanding, to discuss examples of good and bad practice, and to get sign-up to the company’s standards

 

• Circulated with an instruction that members of the senior management team will monitor the delivery and effectiveness of the standards, and of issues arising, and there will be feedback to the senior management team on performance against the standards.

 

When used correctly, policies pull people together to a common mission and way of working.  Used correctly, they transform employees understanding of the company.  They align your managers and employees to work in a collaborative manner.  They increase commitment and motivation.