Policy with Purpose

My #ThursdayThought this week is prompted by an insightful article (link below) on sickness absence policies by Gethin Nadin and the Workplace Wellbeing Action Group (I’m looking forward to release of their first album later this year ??).?

The article struck a chord and reinforced all my confirmation biases about HR policy. This one happened to be about sickness absence but there is a wider point here about what policy is, what is it for and who is it aimed at.?

In my experience employers tend to take a risk averse, quasi-legalistic approach to policy development, and perhaps with good reason.? When you are confronted with a tricky employment tribunal that could cost you financially and reputationally, having a well-crafted legally sound document can provide some reassurance. The problem is that even the best policy documents will not protect employers whose managers act as a￡$%holes.?

In my view you should think about policy through a ‘people first’ lens – how can a policy help individuals and the organisation thrive?? Of course you need procedures that deal with errant employees, but try to design policies from a preventative rather than a punitive perspective. Let’s take sickness absence as an example. The current wisdom will be to frame the policy as supporting employee wellbeing and then go on to describe the triggers for dealing with people that are taking too much time off, and performance managing them back to an acceptable productivity level or managing them out. What you have is a punitive policy that deals with a 5% problem rather than a 95% opportunity.??

The alternative world view is to think of a wellbeing policy, and what measures you will take, to make the experience of work positive, inclusive, engaging and if you’re very evangelical, joyous. Imagine a policy which focuses on fixing the fence at the top of the river, rather than fishing people out at the bottom. We call this designing kind (with compliance by default), building the focus to get the right results for the business. All the evidence shows that organisations that put people first and demonstrate this through what they say and what they do, outperform their competitors.?

Some ideas to think about when contemplating ‘policy’:?

1. Start with the end in mind. Be clear what you want your policy to do. Baseline your evidence, set clear goals.?

1. Policy on a page. Short and sweet is much better than long and strong.?

1. Test and tweak. Understand who will benefit and how and seek views. Amend based on feedback.?

1. Rinse and repeat. Review impact and repeat 1-3.?

There are lots of HR consultancies that can offer ‘off the shelf’ policy solutions; AI can do a pretty decent job if you use the right prompts, but nothing will beat a policy that you have designed to solve a particular problem or enrich the experience for people. You can use the employment contract to remind people of what is expected, and manage the legal parameters of the relationship, but keep your policies positive and purposeful.?

Be authentic, be people-first, be kind. Design kind.?

#PolicyWithPurpose #WorkingWell #DesignKind #LeadWithKIndness?

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Sickness management policies: Are they worth the paper they’re written on? - HRZone?

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