Develop HR Policies For Your Start-up

The department of human resources deals with one of the most important assets for any organisation - its people. It may require only a single person to start a company but at one or the other point that single person would require more people to come and join him to expand the reach of his or her business.

When a new company is established, not much focus is given to the human resources policies or programmes as compared to the finance or marketing of the business. However, as the company grows and expands, the need for a proper functioning of the human resource department is felt. More time is invested in setting up proper policies and procedures for an appropriate conduct and smooth functioning of the organisation.

HR policies can also act as a distinctive trait of the organisation as a whole other than just being beneficial when a workplace situation arises and getting referred to. For instance, Zomato’s 26 weeks long paid paternity leave is a remarkable policy which makes Zomato stand-out among Indian companies

Parental leave is 23% more important to remote workers than it is to on-site workers.

HR policies and procedures that are made keeping in mind the benefit of the employees often end up proving to be more beneficial for the company itself. When HR policies favor employees, employees get the sense of realization that their company cares for them and they reciprocate this feeling by acting as engaged employees which are the most highly productive employees of the organisation. These HR policies further may reduce the employee attrition rate and attract potential employees.

Now since developing HR policies and procedures from the scratch can be a strenuous task, here we have mentioned a few steps towards developing HR Policies and Procedures for your start-up.

Where to start from?

There are some policies which are important to give a structure and direction to the workplace, let’s start from there -

• Setting organisational objective plan

  Though no one usually has an entire plan set up for what they want to achieve far into the future, having a basic idea regarding what you want the organisation to achieve at least in the near future is necessary. This will assist in setting up your other HR policies

• Planning working hours

  It is important for employees to know what number of days and hours they are expected by their organisation to invest in their job. It has lately been argued whether having fixed working hours is a good idea or not. Many companies prefer a model of flexible working hours that allows employees to work as per their feasibility. Some companies go beyond working hours concept and ask employees to work on the important tasks of the day and log off, irrespective of the hours invested. It has been reported that when employees are allowed to work as per their own schedule and convenience, they are more likely to stay in the organisation and be productive provided a healthy employee - supervisor relationship is maintained.

  77% of firms globally report that they have introduced flexible working policies to attract and retain top talent.

• Code of Conduct

  Code of conduct is nothing but explaining to your employees how you expect them to behave and act in this organisation. This includes the kind of environment that needs to be maintained in the workplace and actions that will be taken if anyone is found violating this code. Also include how one should report another employee who has violated this code of conduct. This is a part where employers should take note that any employee would be scared of the repercussions of disclosing misconduct of another employee. Therefore, it becomes imperative for the employer to ensure all the employees that they will not land in any sort of trouble for reporting against an employee breaking the code.

• Leave policy

  Leave policy includes the number of paid annual and sick leaves that an employee can avail of. It further includes national holidays and provisions for maternity/paternity leaves. Conditions related to non-paid leaves should also be specified here. Nowadays, there is a new leave policy adopted by some of the organisations like Netflix, Linkedin, Evernote and that is an unlimited leave policy. Under this policy, employees can take up as many leaves as they want, whenever they want as long as the work they are required to do is being done. Since in today’s time a trend of working even on weekends and more than the fixed number of hours is being noticed, these companies realized that the traditional model of fixed hours and days was anyway not working, thus they decided to adopt this unlimited leave policy. As long as the managers of the employees knew where the employee is headed work-wise; when he or she takes a leave or for how long they have worked in a day doesn’t matter to these companies.

• Workplace Harassment

  This is an utmost important policy to have for any organisation. A company cannot afford to have their employees work in an environment where they do not feel safe and comfortable. Harassment of any kind - physical/mental/sexual/cyberbullying/verbal, is damaging to the employee’s mental health. Additionally, it hurts the employee emotionally. This can have a long term impact on the employee’s personal life and professional career. Therefore, it is important for a company to have a separate department which caters to workplace harassment and have strict actions taken against the offenders. It is to be noted that before the action is taken against the offender, a detailed enquiry is conducted on the harassment complaint made so that no innocent person faces consequences for an act he/she never performed.

  Although 98% of businesses have a policy against sexual harassment, only 51% have implemented new policies or training in response to the #metoo movement.

• Dress Code Policy

  A company’s dress code policy should begin by informing the employees about what is expected from them with respect to how they are supposed to dress and present themselves. This policy should specify to whom it is being applied to so that the employees know if they are included or exempted from this policy. A lot of corporate offices now-a-days have semi-formal or casual dress codes. Further, according to a research by Pew Research center, workplace policy regarding dress codes are continuing to evolve to adjust with the culture of the new generation that is becoming a part of the workforce, that is, generation Z and millenials. Having casuals as a dress code allows employees to express their individuality via the way they choose to dress up.

• Awards and Recognition Policy

  Awards and Recognition are important to keep the employees motivated. Motivated employees are among the major reasons behind overall organisational productivity. Ensure that the policy explains what is the criteria for receiving awards or rewards. Maintain transparency and efficiency while implementing this policy. It is important that the recognition given is genuine and done at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way, else it loses its credibility. The rewards given should be valuable to the employee and should have a personal touch. The rewards may be monetary or non-monetary but they should be significant. Therefore, it is necessary to create a culture that appreciates such rewards and recognition.

• Grievance Policy

  A company cannot afford to have employees work for it and then completely ignore their complaints and concerns. It will only be losing its employees by following this path. There should be a grievance policy which should state the point of contact and the procedure to follow in case any employee has any grievance or concern to raise regarding any workplace matter. An appropriate action and in a timely manner should be undertaken by the organisation to resolve that grievance and let the employee be informed about it. This is a healthy practice to be followed. It also sends out a message that the company cares for its employees.

• Resignation Policy

  It is an undeniable fact that employees tend to leave the organisation and move on to the new one at one or the other point of time. This is regardless of what compensation, position , work environment the company has been offering. People move on due to different reasons. For this purpose, framing a resignation policy is necessary to explain steps and procedure that an employee who wishes to quit the organisation needs to follow. It usually includes the notice period the employee needs to serve after his or her resignation is approved, an option to buy out the notice period or any other method the company may like to adopt. It further may include any company equipment or tool that the employee needs to return to the company, information on eligibility to get rehired - that is, if an employee leaves the company at a good standing and his or her performance during the employment has been more than satisfactory then he or she is eligible to get rehired after a particular duration of time.

• CONCLUSION:

  To sum it all, it is difficult to frame workplace HR policies from the scratch since there is a lot to cover. It is advisable to research the latest trends in the HR policies and the changing employee culture and then devise any of the policies. HoshiHRMS HR Software in the best HR and Payroll Software in India which is equiped with all the latest HR policies. Moreover, it is always a great idea to come up with some innovative policies. This helps a company to distinguish itself in the employee market. More the policies are employee centric, the more the company will be considered as the desired place to work by the potential employees.

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