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Abstract
Business managers and the owners experience a lot of pressure that arises from the competitive markets that require additional efforts from the internal context. The workplace environment requires a well-established guideline that drives the employees to undertake critical procedures to achieve set goals. The managers use the established guidelines to ensure that they create a competitive advantage from the employee’s perspective. In so doing, the organizational culture is streamlined to eliminate forms of injustices, inequality, and discrimination. The human resource policy creates a set of guidelines that determines the conduct of critical procedures and employee conduct. The project will focus on analyzing the four elements critically the form distinct HR policies within accompany. The policies include dress code, code of conduct, harassment, and training opportunities. The policy manual in the article will put into consideration all the employment laws and streamline the guidelines to suit the company size of 15-25 employees. The HR policy guidelines will ensure that the discussed policy elements offer proper guidance and practice to the company’s employees.
Human Resource Policy Project
The human resource department has the responsibility to develop operational and behavioral guidelines that the employees have to adhere to for proper management of the people factor. The HR managers have to rely on the guidelines to provide appropriate guidance to the employees and make informed decisions regarding training, recruitment, motivation, promotion, and compensation. The human resource policy manuals are used by the HR managers and top management teams to create a stable foundation for organizational culture, rules, standards, and practices. It is actualized t through the creation of specialized employee handbooks given to all employees. the employee policy manual will contain the four vital points: dress code, code of conduct, harassment, and training opportunities/ expectations while Considering the company with 5-25 employees
DRESS CODE
Why should these elements be in a policy manual?
The dress code is used by many organizations to create a unique communication tool to the employees on how and what the organization perceives to be the appropriate work clothing. The company’s dress code policy emphasizes the importance for employees to consider specific appearance in dealing with company activities when interacting with visitors, clients, and other stakeholders. The dress code used by the company for its employees is believed to create an impact on the perception of the quality of service by customers (Karl at al., 2013). An organization’s dress code creates a visual communication and performance of employees hence creating a workplace culture for all employees (Ainsworth, 2014). The dress code should be included in the policy manual to ensure that employees follow the guidelines and achieve uniformity.
The implementation of the guidelines ensures that the customers easily recognize the employees, visitors, management, and the employees can quickly identify colleagues. The name tags should also be included as part of the company’s dress code so the customers can identify job designation for proper customer service.
What laws or principles mandate an organization to follow these guidelines?
The dress codes adopted by the company require adhering to non-discriminatory laws and principles with a high focus on the protection of the employees’ rights. The dress code adopted needs to be aligned to the organizational culture and goals while protecting employee rights and ensuring that there are no forms of discrimination against gender, race, or religion. The federal laws do not mandate organizations to adopt a set of dress code guidelines, but it outlaws employer discrimination of employees based on religion, gender, race, and sex. According to Weiss (2019), Title VII is vital in limiting workplace discrimination and protecting employees’ culture and beliefs.
What cases have established a precedent for this issue to be addressed?
The diversity issue in the organization in the context of race, religion, and sex ensures that the organization adheres to the dress code guidelines in the policy manual. The many cases of sexual discrimination in many organizations provide the importance of the issue to be addressed through the set of guidelines.
Code of Conduct
Why should these elements be in a policy manual?
The code of conduct is used to offer a company’s mechanism to address the issues of inclusion and diversity among the employees. According to Schmidt et al. (2017), the code of conduct strengthens the existing ethical codes and emphasizes the inclusive practices among workers. The exclusionary practices and lack of diversity are discouraged for the employees to enhance collaboration and accountability among workers. The codes of conduct vital in ensuring critical processes are undertaken effectively through teamwork and knowledge sharing; hence an organization can benefit from diversity and inclusion.
What laws or principles mandate an organization to follow these guidelines?
The public companies are legally obliged to have a code of conduct, while others also require it to ensure that there is a well-crafted internal rule that guides employees at workplaces. According to U. S. Legal (2010), the code of conduct emerged as a result of social responsibility and public interest in organizational activities. The code of conduct ensures that employees adhere to the law and the ethics enforced in an organization. The code of conduct is developed into a formal organizational requirement that creates the rules of employee conduct, implementation, reporting, and punishment for bypassing the rules.
What cases have established a precedent for this issue to be addressed?
The legal precedents create a basis for guidance on organizations to act and protect their actions regarding the implementation of the code of conduct. Employees commit themselves to observe the set standards by adhering to their obligation ad being aware of the sanctions that come along with going against the rules. The cases of employee misbehavior and lack of adherence to the company culture necessitated the need to address the issue through establishing a code of conduct and including it in the policy manual.
Harassment
Why should these elements be in a policy manual?
The policy is important because it applies to employees and all individuals within the workplace environment. The policy emphasizes for all employees to work appropriately and eliminate all forms of harassment at the workplace. It prevents all forms of intimidation, humiliation, and discouragement of other people. The anti-harassment policy also illegalizes all manners of discrimination regarding age, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, and disability. Becton et al. (2017) noted that workplace harassment requires to be curbed because it creates discrimination and violates the critical employment laws.
What laws or principles mandate an organization to follow these guidelines?
The civil rights act, age discrimination in employment, and people with disabilities establish laws that outlaw workplace harassment (Becton et al., 2017). The laws advocate for building a working environment free from hostility, abusiveness, and intimidation, hence positivity among people. The policy manual should include the harassment element that takes in all appropriate measures to prevent harassment, formulate strong disapproval, create sanctions, and create awareness among the employees.
What cases have established a precedent for this issue to be addressed?
The common forms of harassment facing organizations concern racial and sexual harassment. In 1965 sexual harassment was pronounced to be a form of illegal discrimination under the civil rights act in USA.in the 1970s, sexual harassment became punishable under law after the court battles in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 1986 (Stockdale et al., 2019). The case laid a foundation for organizations to adopt the anti-harassment guidelines at workplaces to ensure that the employees are aware of the requirements regarding the issue. The policy will ensure that a positive measure is implemented to prevent and tackle issues relating to harassment with numerous rules that enhance the effectiveness of promoting zero tolerance to workplace harassment.
Training Opportunities/Expectations
Why should these elements be in a policy manual?
Employees are offered training opportunities to ensure that performance standards are improved and improve their promotion expectations. The companies have a role in ensuring that employees’ training programs are properly formulated to create competitiveness within the company processes. Proper training policies ensure that the opportunities are designed for the majority of the staff to improve their skills to maximize the returns on their labor costs. The training element is vital because it provides opportunities for employees and sets expectations in their work. It creates a responsibility that drives the workers to aim and fulfill various goals. The policy should provide proper guidelines that create equitable training opportunities for employees for successful performance transformation. Khan et al. (2016) noted that equitable distribution of training opportunities positively influences the company’s performance levels due to high expectations from employees. The training rules should be enforced to ensure that opportunities are presented to all members depending on the job category outlined in the policy manual.
What laws or principles mandate an organization to follow these guidelines?
The principles of organizational equality for all employees regarding opportunities require companies to adhere to creating practices through training guidelines. The training guidelines need to be established and implemented fully to ensure that there are no discrimination cases in offering training opportunities that create new employee expectations. The equality law at workplaces provides employers training, development, promotion, and employee transfer to ensure that their expectations and skills are improved continuously. Adherence to the equality laws in training ensures that liabilities are minimized, and a workplace environment is enhanced with inclusion and diversity devoid of harassment (Suriani, 2018).
What cases have established a precedent for this issue to be addressed?
When employers provide training opportunities, they are required to ensure that there is zero tolerance to discrimination by lawfully abiding by the policy guidelines. The cases such as Freitick v. SMS Rail Lines set the tone by establishing a precedent through its ruling to ensure that the company pays attention to the training programs to ensure employees acquire enough skills. Hunt (2013) employers need to implement training policies to ensure that employees are fully trained to learn adequate skills. Engetou (2017) noted that job training and development ensures that employees are exposed to enough skills and techniques to contribute to the growth of the organization entirely.