Many factors influence company policies. These may include your organization’s goals, the need to scale or expand the organization, adjust to external shocks, and the need for survival or even new demands. Hence, policy work is best when not cast in stone. When considering developing the company policy, it is also crucial to have an implementation strategy and how to audit its enforcement.
Developing company policies
As stated earlier, developing company policies may be occasioned by many factors. For example, in the past two years after Covid-19 struck, many organizations had to create workplace policies to ensure people were safe from the pandemic and that work is ongoing. Hence, there was a massive shift from a physical office to remote working. In that case, an event that could be described as an external shock demanded a change in work policy.
Therefore, when developing policies, you need to pay attention to what you intend to achieve. The remote working policy helped in ensuring work continuity while protecting the employees. It also helped maintain productivity in the face of an unprecedented health crisis.
Further, you have to consider the long-term plans of your organization. If, for example, you intend to expand and open other branches of your organization in different areas, your hiring policy work should capture that. You will need to decide whether hiring a local team will be more beneficial to the growth of the new company branches. Hence, developing policies in and for your company will require you to look into future expansion plans.
Implementing policies
After developing policies to benefit your organization, the rubber meets the road at the implementation stage. The failure of the organization or its success depends largely on whether the policies are effectively put into action or not. This stage requires resources and cooperation from your team to succeed. For example, requiring your employees to work remotely would only be possible if you provide them with requisite resources such as computers and the internet and adequate reimbursement. Besides, offering them the support they may need to manage working outside the office will be crucial.
When implementing business expansion policies, you will need adequate human resources, strategic location, and equipment. When hiring for expansion, for example, involving your employees will make the hiring and onboarding work easier and accelerate the process. This is because employees understand the organizational culture and will easily recommend prospective employees who can fit into the organization with ease.
Auditing the company policies
After developing and implementing the policies in your organization, the other significant step to take is to review and audit the policies. Statistics show that 69% of executives lack confidence in the policies implemented. Why would that be the case when resources have been deployed and company time spent in implementing them? To ensure that the policies that have been implemented achieve the intended purpose, auditing them from time to time is important.
It would help to decide which policies require review against the goals set. For example, if your hiring policies require you to bring new team members after crossing a certain profit margin, it is important to review if you still need to hire even after achieving that goal. Similarly, if your organization has a remote working policy, it is important to review that from time to time to determine whether it achieves the set goals or not. Auditing may include interviewing employees, administering questionnaires, and getting professionals to review your organization’s progress.
In conclusion
Policy infrastructure is a core part of any organization. Progressively developing new policies may need to respond to external shocks, organizational changes, or may be part of working towards future goals. Whatever the reason, it is important to understand why new policies are necessary at a certain time in your organization. Additionally, you need to know how to implement them appropriately. Finally, auditing the progress to ensure the policies achieve the desired function is the crux of the matter. It informs any needed changes in the policy framework and the organization at large.
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