Establishing a Company Policy | Resolving Conflict without Causing More

When contemplating whether or not to enforce a new company policy, it is essential to make sure you cover all necessary steps to get your team of employees on board.  This will minimize the anxiety that comes with change, and also ensure the policy is understood and followed both short term and long term.  Use the following steps to successfully implement policy.

Decide whether the policy is warranted.
New policies are necessary to resolve conflict and alleviate challenges within the workplace.  However, you don’t want to implement a policy that creates more problems than it solves.  Make sure the policy is being created for the majority of the employees, not the minority.  Here are a few criteria to determine whether a policy changed is needed:
– Will it keep the company in compliance with government policies?
– Have previous regulations changed?
– Will it establish consistent standards across the organization?
– Is it fair from all employees’ perspectives?

Involve your staff.
Your task as a manager is to communicate how addressing the above need with a proposed policy will benefit both the employee and the organization.  Ask your employees for input and stress how they can benefit from the new policy.  Being involved in the decision-making process gives employees a sense of ownership, and they’ll be more willing to make suggestions and adapt to changes.  Employees will be able to provide insight on how the policy change will affect particular steps of the process that you don’t have a hand in on a day-to-day basis.

Write the policy down.
Policies that aren’t written down will get misinterpreted, altered, or even forgotten about.  Use simple language and speak directly the people who will be reading, enforcing, and adhering to the policy.  Select a small group of individuals to read through the policy and make sure it’s clear and understandable before sending it out to the entire organization. This will give you an opportunity to make last-minute revisions to the policy to ensure that it is understandable for the entire audience.

Provide training.
It’s essential to have training any time a new policy is implemented.  After communicating the policy throughout the organization, schedule a training session for all employees.  Keep in mind when scheduling the training sessions that it takes an average of four weeks to develop a habit and become comfortable with new workplace procedures.   If you’re implementing an extensive policy, you should schedule follow-up trainings.  Bear in mind that it will take a couple runs through the production cycle, before the policy is one hundred percent implemented.

Monitor the policy.
Keep monitoring the policy changes after they’re implemented to make sure that they’re working as predicted. By doing so, you’ll be able to anticipate problems and make small adjustments periodically.  This is the best way to ensure that the policy is meeting both short-term needs and long-term goals.

No matter how large or small the policy change, most employees are initially resistant.  However, by following the above steps and presenting your case for improvement as a personal benefit to the employee, you’ll experience a smooth transition.

If your new policy calls for ramping up your staff in the Greater Cleveland area, Area Temps is here to help. Contact a staffing partner today to see how we can provide customized staffing solutions for your organization.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)