Practical Policies and Procedures Can Save You Money
Warren had a beer at lunchtime, came back to his job as a
forklift driver, abused the female stores clerk and carried on
with his job.
The warehouse manager, who was never very impressed by Warren,
heard about it, accused him of being under the influence of
alcohol and dismissed him. Warren claimed unfair dismissal and,
after a day at the Industrial Relations Commission, was awarded
three months pay.
Charles did a great job of working with a new supplier to
implement the new software package and was pleasantly surprised
to receive a dozen bottles of his favourite red wine by courier.
When he was later recruiting for a senior IT executive, the
supplier's project manager applied for the position and was
successful. Charles was accused of being influenced by the gift
and his relationship with the supplier. He found this disturbing
and a slur on his professionalism and later left the
organization.
While these two stories are fictional, similar cases happen
quite frequently and commonly end up with claims being made by
employees or a loss of valued staff.
Policies and procedures for employing and managing staff are
probably never going to make it on to the urgent list but, by
viewing them as important, the small investment required can be
well worth it.
A comprehensive set of policies and procedures can provide the
framework for a fair and consistent method of managing people
which complies with legislation. They can also form the basis of
an employee handbook which can be used to educate all employees
about their obligations to the organization and fellow workers.
While there will always be someone who disregards the rules, if
they have been communicated, corrective action is easier to
apply, easier to explain and usually far more effective.
In the above cases, policies and procedures on alcohol,
performance, corrective discipline, business gifts and
recruitment would have assisted all the parties involved and
probably averted the incidents.
Policies and procedures should be developed to reflect the
culture of the organization as well as the legal requirements.
>From a business perspective this means less time wasted, less
money spent and better productivity.