HR POLICIES ELISE O'HALLORAN
HR policies for the modern workplace Elise O’Halloran, solicitor at Tavendale and Partners, outlines her recommendations for essential HR policies and asks whether there are any ‘new’ and innovative ways we could consider implementing policies in the modern workplace.
A
s all business leaders, HR managers and people leaders will know, the world of work is rapidly changing. Many of these workplace changes have accelerated into existence as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, workplaces need to ensure they implement or update their existing employment policies to reflect the new employment landscape they find themselves in. Remote working has now become normal. New technologies such as Zoom, Slack and Teams are used for formal and informal communication between colleagues. A new appreciation has been found of the direct correlation between employee wellbeing and performance. As a result of these rapid changes, employers need to consider having in place some essential policies. 14
HUMAN RESOURCES
SUMMER 2021
Are they necessary?
As an employment lawyer, I am often involved in matters where a breakdown in workplace relationships has occurred, which in some cases has resulted in personal grievance claims being raised. In most instances, the events leading up to the relationship breakdown can be summarised as ‘communication failure’. Alternatively, employers have not followed fair or legally compliant procedures with their employees and, as a result, the employee becomes disadvantaged in their employment. The advantage of having sound, up-to-date and robust workplace policies is that they provide an excellent platform to communicate with employees around expectations in the workplace and procedures that will be followed. As soon as any instances of concern arise, these policies can be relied upon to guide those involved back to a common understanding. To protect an employer’s position in employment-related disputes, by setting clear expectations for acceptable behaviours in the workplace and avoiding communication failure, workplace policies are necessary.
The advantage of having sound, up-to-date and robust workplace policies is that they provide an excellent platform to communicate with employees around expectations in the workplace.
Today’s workplace
A recent study has found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2021. We are now bombarded with technology, information, news alerts, notifications and emails. As a result, we need to consider how we are distributing content in our workplaces. Historically, workplace policies have been long and complicated documents, often printed in hard copy and found collecting dust in the bottom drawer of the office. If we want our workplace policies to be worthwhile having in place, they need to be tailored to the audience who is intended to be using them. Hard copy 100-page workplace policies are not what the modern workplace needs.
