What are workplace policies and procedures?

A workplace policy defines the business’s expectations of employees’ performance and behaviour. Workplace policies also help to protect the business when employees are in breach, and the business needs to act.

A procedure outlines the steps involved in implementing the policy, and together they provide a clear guideline for the business’s employees.

Why does your business need them?

The implementation of workplace policies and procedures are crucial in establishing and maintaining an active compliance culture. Policies and procedures foster a safe and harmonious workplace, as well as establishing a framework for organisational behaviour, decision making and the operation of your business.

It is important to recognise that the existence of workplace policies and procedures will often dictate your rights as an employer when dealing with incidents in the workplace. Where the terms of a worker’s employment contract or employment agreement do not cover certain matters, policies and procedures can provide an employer with the necessary clarification or rights to take the appropriate next steps. Importantly, workplace policies and procedures can be amended at the employer’s discretion whilst still requiring employee compliance. In other words, these can be varied, updated and amended without the worker’s consent. However, this is not the case for employment contracts or employment agreements in which require a worker’s consent to be bound by the amendment or variation of terms.

For example: An employer is dealing with recurring issues regarding an employee’s taking excessive personal/carers leave and suspect that the reasons the employees provide are not genuine. The employee’s contracts do not include any terms regarding providing a medical certificate from a General Practitioner when taking personal/carers leave. However, the employer is able to vary/update a current policy or procedure or implement a new policy or procedure which includes a term stating that the employer may request the employee to provide a medical certificate from a general practitioner in certain circumstances.

Further, depending on the type of workplace, certain legislative provisions may require an employer to adopt industry specific workplace policies and procedures.

Understanding what policies and procedures your business needs is important. We recommend you speak to our professionals at Chamberlains HR to determine which policies and procedural documents are suitable for your business, so they can be tailored to your business’s needs.

Our trusted team also assists with drafting policies and procedures, and we pride ourselves on providing documents in clear, simple language to mitigate the chances of complex and costly disputes arising.