Human resource policies

Human resource policies are continuing guidelines on the approach of which an organization intends to adopt in managing its people. They represent specific guidelines to HR managers on various matters concerning employment and state the intent of the organization on different aspects of Human Resource management such as recruitment, promotion, compensation, training, selections etc. They therefore serve as a reference point when human resources management practices are being developed or when decisions are being made about an organization's workforce.

A good HR policy provides generalized guidance on the approach adopted by the organization, and therefore its employees, concerning various aspects of employment. A procedure spells out precisely what action should be taken in line with the policies.

Each organization has a different set of circumstances and so develops an individual set of human resource policies. The location an organization operates in will also dictate the content of their policies.

Purposes

The establishment of policies can help an organization demonstrate, both internally and externally, that it meets requirements for diversity, ethics and training as well as its commitments in relation to regulation and corporate governance of its employees. For example, in order to dismiss an employee in accordance with employment law requirements, amongst other considerations, it will normally be necessary to meet provisions within employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements. The establishment of an HR Policy which sets out obligations, standards of behavior, and documents disciplinary procedures, is now the standard approach to meeting these obligations. HR policies provide frameworks within which consistent decisions are made and promote equity in the way in which people are treated.

HR policies can also be very effective at supporting and building the desired organizational culture. For example, recruitment and retention policies might outline the way the organization values a flexible workforce, compensation policies might support this by offering a 48/52 pay option where employees can take an extra four weeks holidays per year and receive less pay across the year.

In actuality, policies and procedures serve a number of purposes:

1. They provide clear communication between the organization and their employees regarding their condition of employment.
2. They form a basis for treating all employees fairly and equally.
3. They are a set of guidelines for supervisors and managers.
4. They create a basis for developing the employee handbook.
5. They establish a basis for regularly reviewing possible changes affecting employees.
6. They form a context for supervisor training programs and employee orientation programs.

Development

In developing HR Policies, there should be clear and consistent statement of the organization's policies regarding all conditions of employment and procedures for their equal and fair implementation. In order to fulfill this objective, policies and procedures should be:

• Clear and specific, but provide enough flexibility to meet changing conditions.
• Comply with all appropriate law and regulation.
• Consistent amongst one another and reflect an overall true and fair view approach to all employees.

HR policies are developed by making decisions and taking actions on the day-to-day problems of the organization. The process of developing HR policies involves the assessment of the following factors:

1. Identify the purpose and objectives which the organization wishes to attain regarding its Human Resources department.
2. Analysis of all the factors under which the organization's HR policy will be operating.
3. Examining the possible alternatives in each area which the HR policy statement is necessary.
4. Implementation of the policy through the development of a procedure to support the policy.
5. Communication of the policy and procedures adapted to the entire organization.
6. Auditing the policy so as to reveal the necessary areas requiring change.
7. Continuous revaluation and revision of policy to meet the current needs of the organization.

Formulation

Human resource management consists of deliberate organizational activities designed to improve employee productivity and administration through such means as recruitment, compensation, performance, evaluation, training, record keeping and compliance. HR policies should be developed for key HR management functions covering eight commonly accepted responsibilities:

1. Compensation and benefits
2. Labor management relations
3. Employment practices and placement
4. Workplace diversity
5. Health, safety and security
6. Human resources information systems
7. Human resource research
8. Training and development

The following steps should be taken when formulating or revising policies:

1. Gain understanding of the corporate culture and its shared values
2. Analyze existing policies: both written and unwritten existing policies.
3. Analyze external influences: HR policies are subject to the influence of many legislation, regulations and authorities, thus the codes of practice issued by the professional institutions should also be consulted.
4. Assess any areas where new policies are needed or existing policies are inadequate.
5. Check with managers, preferably starting with the organization's leadership team, on their views about HR policies and where they think could be improved.
6. Seek the view of employees about the HR policies, especially to the extent for which they are inherently fair and equitable and are implemented fairly and consistently.
7. Seek the view of the union's representatives.
8. Analyze the information retained in the previous steps and prepare the draft policies.
9. Consult, discuss and agree on policies with management and union representatives.

In order to write the first draft of the policies as step 7 have stated, the following content should be included:

• Policy name
• Effective date of the policy and the date of any revisions
• Approval status - At this stage, the status should be 'DRAFT'
• References - list other policies or documents related to this policy
• Purpose of the policy - what is it intended to promote or achieve
• Main policy statement
• Definition of any key concepts or terms mentioned in the policy need to be defined
• Eligibility or scope - Any stakeholders are covered by the policy
• How to deal with potential exceptions
• Positions in the organizations responsible for implementing and monitoring the policy
• Procedures for carrying out the policy - preferably written in numbered steps

Types

HR policies could be classified on the basis of sources or description.

On the basis of source

On the basis of their source, human resource policies could be classified into

1. Originated Policies - These are the policies usually established by the senior managers in order to guide their subordinates.
2. Implicit Policies - These are the policies which are not formally expressed; they are inferred from the behavior of managers. They are also known as Implied Policies.
3. Imposed Policies - Policies are sometimes imposed on the business by external agencies such as government, trade associations and trade unions.
4. Appealed Policies - Appealed policies arise because the particular case is not covered by the earlier policies. In order to know how to handle some situations, subordinates may request or appeal for the formulation of specific policies.

On the basis of description

On the basis of description, policies may be general or specific.

1. General Policies - These policies do not relate to any specific issue in particular. General policies are formulated by an organization's leadership team. This kind of policies is called 'general' because they do not relate to any specific issue in particular.
2. Specific Policies - These policies are related to specific issues like staffing, compensation, collective bargaining etc. Specific policies must confirm to the pattern laid down by the general policies.

Advantages

The following advantages are achieved by setting up HR policies:

1. They help managers at various levels of decision making to make decisions without consulting their superiors. Subordinates are more willing to accept responsibility because policies indicate what is expected of them and they can quote a written policy to justify their actions.
2. They ensure long term welfare of employees and makes for a good employer-employee relationship as favoritism and discrimination are reduced. Well-established policies ensure uniform and consistent treatment of all employees throughout the organization.
3. They lay down the guidelines pursued in the organization and thereby minimizes the personal bias of managers.
4. They ensure prompt action for taking decisions because the policies serve as standards to be followed. They prevent the wastage of time and energy involved in repeated analyses for solving problems of a similar nature.
5. They establish consistency in the application of the policies over a period of time so that each one in the organization gets a fair and just treatment. Employees know what action to expect in circumstances covered by the policies. Policies set patterns of behavior and permit employees to work more confidently.

Influential factors

The following factors will influence the HR policies of an organization:

Laws of the country

The various labour laws and legislation pertaining to labour have to be taken into consideration. Policies should conform with the laws of the country, state, and/or province otherwise they are bound to cause problems for the organization.

Social values and customs

Social values and customs have to be respected in order to maintain consistency of behavior throughout the organization. The values and customs of all communities should be taken into account when framing policies.

Management philosophy and values

Management philosophy and values influence its action on matters concerning employees. Therefore, without a clear, broad philosophy and set values, it would be difficult for employees to understand management.

Financial impact

HR policies may affect productivity and an organization's overall finances if the create unnecessary burdens or red tape for the organization's workforce. Organizations may also want to consider how realistic it is to enforce a policy fairly or keep it up-to-date as these have the potential to create issues amongst employees.

References

Organisations use images of diversity or information about diversity initiatives in their recruitment advertising to attract job candidates from under-represented groups. Critically evaluate what factors influence job applicants’ reactions to this type of advertising.

There is always a racial variety observed in different organisations. These differences are always of great help in creating a mixed culture at the workplace. In every organisation, there is an effective way of presenting things, which is positively dependent on the integration of different ideas as well as perspectives. The researches, which were conducted in the past, were mostly based on the cultural diversity and to stimulate error detection. Here, the system of the entire process of spreading information needs to be confirmed first. Diverse perspective helps in enhancing the functions of an organisation. Therefore, having different types of people in the organisation can help to bring in different types of ideas for the organisation. Moreover, this can also help in boosting up the overall profits of the organisation and can be of great help in the expansion of the business. Task-relevant information’s are post-effective as they offer ideas, which strengthen the ideas of bringing theories, which can be useful for the organisation. It is important to share ideas with people so that they can give out their thoughts. Moreover, it is very effective as it directly boosts up the development of the organisation (Martins and Parsons, 2007). Demographic differences are being found which are positively related or sometimes negatively related to the demographic development of the organisation. However, the inconsistency in the flow of work can later affect the organisation. Therefore, there are subgroups, which determine the salience of social categories. Workgroup members may differ in different dimensions. Diversity-related variables are also likely to vary depending on its dimensions. The categorisation is wholly based on racial differences because it is one of the most significant issues in the current era. The reward structure is also significantly related to this, and those ideas are implemented later to bring out salience. Subgroup categorisation increases when there are multiple diversity dimensions in a team. However, there are several conditions, which these groups suffer from, and they are based on the detrimental effects of diversity. Inter subgroups also determinate the subgroup performances as the study shows that they are all interrelated (Martins & Parsons, 2007). These relations directly affect the ideas and the thinking of the organisation. Diversity can undermine the group performance, and difference helps to understand the situation. The decreased groups like people with lower income are now trying to create ideas, which can be useful for the organisation and give better results for future. Several attributes define the work, which the minority groups like other racial and ethnic group do, and how they are working. Diversity in work creates a new wave in the work environment that brings both positive and negative influence in the working nature of organisation. Thus, it is better to create moderate relationship between diversity and team performance. Avery, D. R. (2003). Reactions to diversity in recruitment advertising--are differences black and white? Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 672-679. Martins, L. L., & Parsons, C. K. (2007). Effects of gender diversity management on perceptions of organizational attractiveness: The role of individual differences in attitudes and beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 865-875. Williamson, I. O., Slay, H. S., Shapiro, D. L., & Shivers-Blackwell, S. L. (2008). The effect of explanations on prospective applicants’ reactions to firm diversity practices. Human Resource Management, 47(2), 311-330.

How can resistance to diversity be reduced in organisations? (Lecture 17) Growing consequences within organisations are successfully developing diverse workforces, which are very much effective at work. There are several critical steps, which are required to be taken in order to execute the work successfully and that is carrying out proper recruitment and selection program as per HR policies. However, organisations face several barriers when it is attempted to attract individuals or to accept jobs. Moreover, there are such highlight firms, which are related to the highlight firms from different practices. The perspective is to bring more people in who can understand the issues and the problems, which are related to the subject (Wiethoff, 2004). A consistent theme across these studies shows how ineffective these ideas are. Several theories are being put forward to draw attention of more people into the ideas, which can be pulled off to work in the system. However, a main problem with such target approaches is that it assumes the targeted audience and the message is only intended to them. Recruitment advertisements are not always useful as they share a lower interest in the media overlap system (Vescio, Sechrist & Paolucci, 2003). Thus, it is directly related to the prospectus and shares the same linguistics. Specific groups are allocated for such works, and they connect radically to the different thought processes going towards a specific group. Minority groups like Asian American, American Indian and many others possess same factors and bring paradoxical changes. The people working with such perceptions are not always meeting targets. Most of the researchers are interested in the impact of the demography of the respective individuals as well as their group behaviour. However, they are especially relevant to each other and involve group behaviour, which is especially relevant to the work. The first one involves the proportional representation of a specific demographic group’s influence, which is traditionally referred to the minority. It also affects different demographical group negatively, but that does not affect the organisation directly. Hence, a direct discrimination is observed against the women. Organisation ultimately engaged in such operations and is, therefore, less stereotyped in the perception of the women. Therefore, by casting the demographic variables of interest is to help study the aspects as well as the cultural identity of people. The impact of this can be understood with the help of social status record. This is how cultural diversity works and can help in understanding what it is. Moreover, this alters the power and relations between dominants and subdominants. A number of balancing ideas helps us to understand the positions of these changes and thus at times can be equivocal at its best.

Vescio, T. K., Sechrist, G. B., & Paolucci, M. P. (2003). Perspective taking and prejudice reduction: The mediational role of empathy arousal and situational attributions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 455–472. Thomas, K. M., & Plaut, V. C. (2008). The many faces of diversity resistance in the workplace. In K. M. Thomas (Ed.), Diversity resistance in organizations (pp. 1-22). Psychology Press. Wiethoff, C. (2004). Motivation to learn and diversity training: Application of the theory of planned behavior. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 263–278. Homan, A. C., Hollenbeck, J. R., Humphrey, S. E., Van Knippenberg, D., Ilgen, D. R., Van Kleef, G. A. (2008). Facing differences with an open mind: Openness to experience, salience of intragroup differences, and performance of diverse work groups. Academy of Management Journal, 51(6), 1204-1222.