The day-to-day procedures used in every company is the sum total of the experience and expertise that the people who worked there could muster over their work lives. As a result, these policies and procedures are a shining example of how to best do things. At least, that’s what we would like to believe.
Instead, many company policies and procedures are merely the result of intellectual apathy and possible laziness and should have been abandoned long ago. As difficult as it is for me to say, no one is more to blame for this problem other than the HR department. It has been and always will be their responsibility to monitor, improve and implement company practices, policies, and procedures. The buck stops here.
The Employee “WHY?”
Nothing is more embarrassing to me as an HR professional than not being able to give a respectable answer to an employee asking why we, as a company, do a particular something. It seems to me that all our policies and procedures should be examined and improved on a continual basis to avoid that very situation. This process is especially important in the HR arena as the person asking the question, i.e. the employee, is our actual customer. If you don’t believe me, just imagine the panic in the executive suite if retail customers were asking the very same types of questions.
Using Technology to Avoid Obsolescence
While the majority of employees will bide their time and keep their mouths shut when confronted with obvious absurdities in company policy, their silence does not mean that the poorly constituted policies do not have a negative effect on employee morale and efficiency. Something as simple as an outdated dress code can sow the seeds of dissent and have a significant effect down the road.
The use of a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) can alleviate many of these problems before they start. First, an HRIS demonstrates that a company is embracing the computer age. It may seem like a small thing but the latest generations of employees are far more comfortable receiving their information from this source than at a company meeting or via paper handouts.
Similarly, an HRIS can be configured to almost guarantee the delivery of a message to every employee in the company. This ability is especially important when it comes to disseminating new or changed company policies. Lastly, an HRIS can provide an anonymous avenue for employee feedback. Any HR department worth its salt should be seeking out this information.
Unearth and Remove the Fossils in Your HR Department
It should be obvious that removing poor company policies and procedures is a good policy in itself. Identifying them is not always easy, however, as many departments wear blinders of incredible efficiency when it comes to criticism of their procedures. The use of an automated HRIS allows a great deal of interactivity between the HR department and its “customers.” It is one of the surest and most effective ways to unearth the fossils in your company policies and remove them forever.
