HR POLICY AREAS

HR policies can be expressed as overall statements of the values of the organization. The main points that can be included in an overall policy statement and specific policy areas are set out below.

Overall Policy

The overall policy defines how the organization fulfils its social responsibilities for its employees and sets out its attitudes towards them. It is an expression of its values or beliefs about how people should be treated. Peters and Waterman (1982) wrote that if they were asked for one all-purpose bit of advice for management, one truth that they could distil from all their research on what makes an organization excellent, it would be, ‘Figure out your value system. Decide what the organization stands for.’ Selznick (1957) emphasized the key role of values in organizations, when he wrote ‘The formation of an institution is marked by the making of value commitments, that is, choices which fix the assumptions of policy makers as to the nature of the enterprise, its distinctive aims, methods and roles.’ 

The values expressed in an overall statement of HR policies may explicitly or implicitly refer to the following concepts:

● Equity: treating employees fairly and justly by adopting an ‘even handed’ approach. This includes protecting individuals from any unfair decisions made by their managers, providing equal opportunities for employment and promotion, and operating an equitable payment system. 

● Consideration: taking account of individual circumstances when making decisions that affect the prospects, security or self-respect of employees. 

● Organizational learning: a belief in the need to promote the learning and development of all the members of the organization by providing the processes and support required. 

● Performance through people: the importance attached to developing a performance culture and to continuous improvement; the significance of performance management as a means of defining and agreeing mutual expectations; the provision of fair feedback to people on how well they are performing. 

● Work-life balance: striving to provide employment practices that enable people to balance their work and personal obligations. 

● Quality of working life: consciously and continually aiming to improve the quality of working life. This involves increasing the sense of satisfaction people obtain from their work by, so far as possible, reducing monotony, increasing variety, autonomy and responsibility, and avoiding placing people under too much stress. 

● Working conditions: providing healthy, safe and so far as practicable pleasant working conditions.

These values are espoused by many organizations in one form or another, but to what extent are they practised when making ‘business-led’ decisions, which can of course be highly detrimental to employees if, for example, they lead to redundancy? One of the dilemmas facing all those who formulate HR policies is, how can we pursue business-led policies focusing on business success, and also fulfil our obligations to employees in such terms as equity, consideration, work-life balance, quality of working life and working conditions? To argue, as some do, that HR strategies should be entirely business-led seems to imply that human considerations are unimportant. Organizations have obligations to all their stakeholders, not just their owners. 

It may be difficult to express these policies in anything but generalized terms, but employers are increasingly having to recognize that they are subject to external as well as internal pressures, which act as constraints on the extent to which they can disregard the higher standards of behaviour towards their employees that are expected of them.