Business organizations need to develop various Human Resource (HR) procedures to ensure that all employees are aware of what is expected of them at work and how their performance will be measured.
This mainly includes monitoring and applying labor legislation as well as managing industrial relations between the workforce and management.
In many countries, employers are legally obliged to develop suitable policies and procedures for their Human Resource (HR) departments.
Main Human Resource (HR) policies and procedures
Let’s take a look at main policies and procedures developed by Human Resource (HR) departments:
1. Appraisal of employees. Appraisal of employees, or a performance review, is referred to evaluating the employee’s performance against agreed criteria to see how well the employees have done his job. This normally involves a discussion between the employee and the line manager to determine which objectives set for the period concerned have been achieved. This procedure is expected to be developed to help review the performance of employees at regular intervals such as 6 months or 12 months. The Human Resource (HR) department is also expected to give advice on procedures to ensure that appraisal of employees is conducted properly and fairly.
2. Grievance. Grievance is a formal complaint raised by an employee about a workplace issue. Grievances can be individual or collective, and they can be minor or serious. This procedure shall set out what employees should do, if they are aggrieved at something that has happened to them in the business organization, e.g. they think that they have been treated badly, believe that they have been discriminated against or harassed, feel that they are being overworked or underpaid, etc.
3. Discipline. Discipline issues happen when an employee is in breach of the organization’s rules of behavior such as having unauthorized absence or is stealing property from the employer. This procedure will typically specify what constitutes a disciplinary offense and what action may be taken depending on how serious the breach of discipline is. Several stages must be completed – verbal warning, first written warning, final written warning – before an employee can be dismissed.
4. Health and safety. Health and safety at work is about protecting workers from hazards that can cause any harm to them such as injury, illness, or death. It is also about creating a safe and healthy workplace where workers can thrive. This procedure sets out matters like the firm’s health and safety policy: what safety precautions should be taken, identifying and assessing hazards, taking steps to eliminate or reduce hazards, what should be done in the event of an accident, and providing workers with the training and equipment they need to stay safe.
Storing personnel information and record keeping
A key element of Human Resource (HR) management of a modern business organization is maintaining records of personnel. These days, most business organizations maintain personnel records in a digital format on the computer or in the cloud.
While the extent of employee information kept by the firms varies between organizations, the following are the most common records are normally kept:
- Basic employee data. This includes employee number, name, address, national ID number, social insurance number, etc.
- Wages and salaries. This includes pay scale, method of payment, bank account number, bonuses, profit sharing, share ownership, etc.
- Training. This includes al courses attended, qualifications obtained, needs for future training, etc.
- Labor turnover. This includes the percentage of workers leaving the business each earn.
- Absenteeism rates. This includes the number of days workers were absent from work, e.g. because of sickness, personal reasons, etc.
- Applicants for posts. This includes any laws that aim to protect employees and job applicants against employment discrimination when it involves, e.g. unfair treatment because of race, color, religion, gender, etc.
- Holiday entitlement. This includes the number of days off each employee is entitled to every year.
- Occupational health. This includes any specific issues concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work.
By storing personnel information, the Human Resource (HR) department is able to find out all sorts of information about employees in the organization.
Appropriate record keeping also helps to monitor the work of the Human Resource (HR) department, provide valuable information which the firm can use in the development of future business strategy as well as provide advice to line managers and directors of different departments.
