Human resource policies are the formal rules and guidelines that organizations put in place to hire, train, assess, and reward the members of their workforce. These policies, when organized and shared in an easily used form, can serve to preempt many misunderstandings between employees and employers about their rights and obligations in the work place.

All too often, when management is focused on the concerns of day to day work, they can put off the task of writing up a human resource policy. We advise all of our clients to get a policy down on paper, even if it is a simple one drafted from a template. Having policies written is important so that it is clear to all what the policies are and that they are applied consistently and fairly across the organization. Moreover, when issues concerning employee rights and company policies come before the courts, it is standard practice to assume that the company’s human resource policies, whether written or verbal, are a part of an employment contract between the employee and the company.

The manager who takes the time to establish sound, comprehensive human resource policies will be far better equipped to succeed over the long run than those who deal with each policy decision as it erupts. The latter ad hoc style is much more likely to produce inconsistent, uninformed, and legally questionable decisions that may cripple an otherwise successful organization.

Additionally, Human Resource policies that are inconsistently applied or based on faulty or incomplete data will almost inevitably result in declines in worker morale, deterioration in employee loyalty and increased vulnerability to legal penalties. To help ensure that your HR policies are applied fairly, we recommend that organizations produce and maintain a written record of its HR policies and of instances in which those policies came into play.