Policies and procedures are an essential part of any organization. Together, policies and procedures provide a roadmap for day-to-day operations. They ensure compliance with laws and regulations, give guidance for decision-making, and streamline internal processes.
However, policies and procedures won’t do your organization any good if your employees don’t follow them.
Employees don’t always like the idea of having to follow the rules. But policy implementation is not just a matter of arbitrarily forcing employees to do things they don’t want to do.
Following policies and procedures is good for employees and your organization as a whole.
Why are policies and procedures important in the workplace
As your organization’s leaders create and enforce policies, it’s important to make sure your staff understands why following policies and procedures is critical. Here are just a few of the positive outcomes of following policies and procedures:
Consistent processes and structures
Policies and procedures keep operations from devolving into chaos. Without structure or accountability in place, employees may be tempted to see what they can "get away with." Over time, this attitude erodes organizational culture and operational efficiency.
In contrast, when everyone is following policies and procedures, your organization can run smoothly. Management structures and teams operate as they’re meant to. And mistakes and hiccups in processes can be quickly identified and addressed.
When your staff is following policies and procedures, your organization will use time and resources more efficiently. You’ll be able to grow and achieve your goals as an organization.
Consistent processes also help personnel work productively. They know what they’re responsible for, what’s expected of them, and what they can expect from their supervisors and co-workers. This frees them up to do their jobs with confidence and excellence.
Better quality service
When employees follow procedures, they perform tasks correctly and provide consistent customer service. This enhances the quality of your organization’s products and services, which ultimately improves your company’s reputation. Employees will know they are doing their jobs well, find more job satisfaction, and take pride in their work.
Safer workplaces
When your staff is following policies and procedures, workplace accidents and incidents are less likely to occur.
This reduces liability risks for your organization and limits interruptions in operations. Your employees can feel safe and comfortable in the workplace, knowing that their managers and co-workers are looking out for their best interest. They can rest assured that they’ll be taken care of if something does happen.
Ways to implement policies and procedures
Maybe your employees already grasp the importance of following policies and procedures. How can you make sure that your staff continues to maintain compliance? Here are a few ideas:
Make policy manuals more accessible
Employees can’t follow policies they're not aware of. Many public safety agencies still use paper-based policy manuals. They pass out binders containing the employee handbook during employee onboarding.
Unfortunately, these policy binders often end up stuffed in a drawer or on a shelf gathering dust. A survey by XpertHR found that 66% of organizations struggle to get employees to read their handbook. Many of your seasoned employees may not even know where their handbooks are anymore.
This is problematic, because employees – especially those in the field – need access to policies at any time. Without easy access to an up-to-date policy and procedure manual, officers won’t know the correct procedures to follow in critical situations. Instead, they'll use their best judgment or what they vaguely remember from training, which could open your agency to liability.
Using a policy management software such as PowerDMS makes policies and procedures available to every staff member. You can quickly send out policy updates, and require employee signatures to make sure everyone has read the policy.
With online policy management, your staff can access procedures from anywhere, using any computer or mobile device. Instead of having to thumb through pages of a binder in the middle of an incident, they can do a simple keyword search to pull up the procedure they need.
This ensures they are actually following policies and procedures rather than just trying to remember the correct steps off the top of their head.
Implement training courses
Making sure your employees read policies and procedures is the first step toward ensuring compliance, but it’s not enough on its own. Employees may not fully understand a policy or know how to put it into practice. So your organization needs to train employees on the substance of policies, and how to perform procedures in real-life situations.
Thorough training on policies and procedures should happen for every new hire during the onboarding process. Statistics show that employees who receive formal onboarding training are more productive, gain full proficiency faster, and are more likely to hit their performance milestones.
Policy and procedure training should be ongoing for all employees (not just something that happens during onboarding). Training will look different depending on your industry and the size of your organization. For example, in law enforcement and healthcare, hands-on, scenario-based training is particularly important.
Despite the need for scenario based training, every organization should have online training courses available to employees. An online training management program, for example, can save your organization time and money by allowing employees to complete training independently on their own time.
With PowerDMS, you can upload training materials like PowerPoints, videos, audio files, and more. Not only will you have a record of each employee’s engagement with the training, but you will be able to gather feedback to improve policies and training courses.
When you streamline your training, your employees will be better equipped to follow policies and procedures.
Test employee comprehension
Policy distribution and training don’t guarantee that employees truly understand policies. An employee may sign off on a document without actually comprehending it. In the short term, this may not seem to matter, but in the long run, it will result in employees not following policies and procedures.
A good policy and procedure management software will allow you to create tests to make sure employees understand policies. With a tool like PowerDMS, you can create customizable quizzes for employees to complete after reading a policy or finishing a training course. You can address any gaps in understanding and rest assured that employees know how to follow procedure.
Encourage accountability
Policy implementation happens from the top down. Employees are more likely to abide by policy if they see their managers and leaders consistently following policies and procedures as well.
If employees don't follow policies and procedures, they should understand the consequences. This means your organization must have a structure for discipline and corrective action. Again, this starts with the leaders. Managers and supervisors must be trained on when and how to conduct disciplinary reviews.
Supervisors shouldn’t have to micromanage employees to make sure they are following policies and procedures. Procedure checklists and reporting mechanisms can help keep employees on track.
This documentation will give leaders visibility into who is and isn't following procedures. They can reward employees or offer correction as needed. Employees who are deviating from procedures may just need some guidance or further training.
Regularly review policies and procedures
When practices deviate from policy, it usually means one of two things:
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Your organization needs to better communicate policy and procedure with your staff and enforce compliance.
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Your policy and procedures are outdated or incomplete.
Employees can’t follow procedures that don’t exist, contradict other policies, or fail to address a significant shift in technology or practice. So organizational leadership must regularly review and revise policies and procedures – taking new regulations, standards, technology, and structural changes into account.
Every time you update policies, make sure to follow the steps listed earlier. Send out policy changes to your staff, incorporate them into training, test on policies, and hold employees accountable. Making sure your employees are following policies and procedures takes work, but it doesn’t have to be difficult.
Use a policy management system to ensure that employees understand the importance of following policies and procedures and know how to do so.
