How can you make HR policies more transparent and accessible?
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HR policies are the rules and guidelines that govern how employees and managers interact in the workplace. They cover topics such as recruitment, performance, compensation, benefits, diversity, ethics, and safety. However, many HR policies are often unclear, outdated, or inaccessible to the people who need them. This can lead to confusion, frustration, and compliance issues. How can you make HR policies more transparent and accessible? Here are some tips to help you improve your HR policy communication and management.
One of the main barriers to HR policy transparency and accessibility is the use of jargon, acronyms, and legal terms. These can make your policies hard to understand, especially for new hires, remote workers, or non-native speakers. To avoid this, use simple and clear language that explains the purpose, scope, and consequences of each policy. Avoid unnecessary details or exceptions that can confuse or overwhelm your audience. Use examples, scenarios, or visuals to illustrate your points and make them more engaging.
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Rebecca Sharples Assoc CIPD
HR Enthusiast | Passionate about People | Mental Health Advocate | Growing my career | Sharing my thoughts and insights
Talk to people like humans and make sure the policies or handbook match your business culture. Don't use lots of complicated jargon to explain things. Break it down. Make it easy to read and simple to follow for everyone. Not only will it be more engaging for everyone, but it's more accessible too! Simple language. Short sentences. Use shorter paragraphs. Don't use jargon or acronyms.
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Andréa Greco
Head de Gente e Gestão I Influenciadora de RH I LinkedIn Top Voice RH e Creator I Palestrante I IBEST Top 9 I Parcerias e Networking Criando laços
Tornar as políticas de recursos humanos (RH) mais transparentes e acessíveis é fundamental para promover um ambiente de trabalho justo, equitativo e inclusivo. Aqui estão algumas estratégias para aumentar a transparência e a acessibilidade das políticas de RH em uma organização: Comunicação clara e consistente. Acesso fácil à informação.Sessões de informações e treinamentos.Canais de comunicação abertos. Políticas acessíveis a todos os funcionários: Certifique-se de que as políticas de RH sejam acessíveis a todos os funcionários, incluindo aqueles com deficiências visuais ou auditivas, fornecidas em formatos alternativos. Documentação atualizada e clara. Transparência nas decisões.
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Katie Spadoro, PHR
Small Business HR Expert - I help small business owners formalize their HR, maintain HR compliance, avoid HR lawsuits & build a positive culture, Non-Equity People Partner, Fractional HR, Entrepreneur
Enhancing HR policy transparency and accessibility can involve centralizing policies on an employee-friendly digital platform, simplifying the language for all, reviewing and updating policies regularly as needed, and providing training and resources. If you have employees who speak a different language, translate your handbook and all documents to accommodate them! Create a feedback mechanism for employee inquiries and use various communication channels for dissemination. We love anonymous employee temperature checks!
Another challenge is to keep your policies organized and updated. If your policies are scattered across different documents, platforms, or locations, they can be difficult to find and follow. Moreover, if your policies are outdated or inconsistent, they can create legal risks or damage your reputation. To prevent this, organize your policies into categories, such as employee handbook, code of conduct, or health and safety. Use a central repository, such as an intranet, a cloud service, or a policy management software, to store and distribute your policies. Update your policies regularly and notify your employees of any changes.
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Lisa Young 🚀⭐️
⚡️HR for HR 🎯 Elevating your HR game with a whole lotta smarts, strategy and style 🔥
The most important thing that is often overlooked is educating your employees on what policies you have and where they are kept and how they can be accessed at any given time. This and also ensuring you frequently remind staff of them, refer to them in communications and share updates to policies where possible. It makes it much harder to enforce policies when staff don't even know they exist.
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Thioro Ndiaye Toure
Dans le monde actuel ou nous vivons, les choses évoluent constamment et tout va vite.Les gens n’ont plus de temps pour lire surtout en entreprise ou on doit être agile mais aussi agir en toute transparence.Une solution que j’ai trouvé c’est de tenir des rencontres mensuelles ou l’occasion est donné pour revisiter le manuel des RH à travers des topics qui intéressent et interpellent les staffs.Parfois envoyer des mails à tout le personnel pour communiquer sur un thématique spécifique d’une manière digeste et compréhensible.
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Adam Horne
🔥 Leading the Open Culture Movement at Open Org | Next Bootcamp Jan 16th - Apply Now via openorg.fyi
Organising HR information in a central place like a Handbook on something like Notion is a game-changer. make sure everyone can access it easily, make sure it's in a digestible format, and make sure it's updated and reviewed regularly.
A third way to make your policies more transparent and accessible is to involve and educate your employees. Instead of imposing your policies from the top down, seek feedback and input from your employees on how to improve them. This can help you identify gaps, issues, or concerns that you may have overlooked. It can also increase your employees' awareness, understanding, and ownership of your policies. To educate your employees, provide training, workshops, or webinars on your policies. Use quizzes, surveys, or assessments to measure their knowledge and compliance.
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Adam Horne
🔥 Leading the Open Culture Movement at Open Org | Next Bootcamp Jan 16th - Apply Now via openorg.fyi
Co-creating is a powerful form of building trust and inclusion within your business. 'If they build it, they use it' is a common phrase I use and see a lot, and it's very true. If you can involve your team in the creation of some policies at some stage, then they will use them, understand them, and believe in them a lot more than they would if they hadn't ever been involved at all.
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Shalini Singh
Senior Lead- People & Business Partner
Your employees are your biggest asset and you need to invest in their growth to get the company's growth. Indulge in clear communication with them to understand what difficulties are they facing and how can they get better. When employees feel respected and see personal growth, they give better results.
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Serena Ottone
HR Partner, Italy at IBM Italia
Explain the reason behind the policies: humans are more keen to do things when they understand the why you’re asking to do. Show them not what they are requested to do, but the ultimate objective; put this in a frame and work to people feel themselves involved in the frame.
A final tip is to monitor and evaluate your policies. You need to track and measure how well your policies are communicated and implemented in your organization. You can use metrics, such as policy views, downloads, ratings, or comments, to gauge the level of transparency and accessibility of your policies. You can also use feedback, audits, or reviews to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of your policies. Based on your findings, you can adjust, revise, or remove your policies as needed.
By following these tips, you can make your HR policies more transparent and accessible to your employees and managers. This can enhance your HR communication, compliance, and culture.
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Adam Horne
🔥 Leading the Open Culture Movement at Open Org | Next Bootcamp Jan 16th - Apply Now via openorg.fyi
Reviewing and being open to changing policies is vital. Nothing stays relevant forever, and sometimes if companies grow quickly you may need to re-evaluate policies a couple of times a year. Make sure you put a caveat into policies to talk about this.
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Priyanka Chauhan
HR and Growth | Startup enthusiast | Building people function @Writesonic (YC S21) 🚀
To monitor and evaluate HR policies, follow these steps: 1) Define goals and objectives that align with the organization's strategy. 2) Involve stakeholders to gather feedback through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or audits. 3) Collect relevant data and metrics to assess policy impact and outcomes. Use tools like surveys, interviews, data tracking, and analysis. 4) Regularly review and assess policies for effectiveness.
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Adam Lotts
Strategic Human Resources Leader
Continuously monitoring and evaluating your policies is a strategic imperative in maintaining their effectiveness and relevance within your organization. Employing metrics like policy views, downloads, ratings, and comments enables you to quantitatively assess the transparency and accessibility of your policies. Additionally, soliciting feedback, conducting audits, and comprehensive reviews can provide valuable qualitative insights into their impact and overall effectiveness. Armed with this data, you can make informed decisions to adjust, revise, or eliminate policies, ensuring they align with evolving organizational needs and compliance standards, thereby fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability.
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Zara Kaisare Morghade
LinkedIn Top Voice ll Director - Human Resources @ Parkar Digital ll Certified POSH Trainer ll CPD HRCI SHRM ISO Certified ll Coach ll Ex-TCS
Accessibility is also key. May companies bury their policies so deep in some obscure sharepoint folder for security purposes. In a day and age where easy accessibility is key, this won't work. Keeping them handy in a group on Teams (can use sharepoint here too) or displaying them on the HRMS homepage also goes a long way in increasing accessibility.
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Abhinav Jain
HR Leader - Talent and Culture || Building High Performing Team
Create a centralized digital platform, such as an intranet or company website, where all HR policies are stored and easily accessible. Categorize policies into sections (e.g., benefits, conduct, leave) to make it simple for employees to find what they need. Implement a search feature on your digital platform to help employees quickly find relevant policies. Host regular Q&A sessions or webinars where employees can ask questions and seek clarification about HR policies. If your workforce is multilingual, provide policy translations to ensure everyone can understand them.
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Sagar Jivani
Co-Founder at ValueX2 | Agile for HR & HR for Agile Coach & Consultant | ICAgile Authorized Instructor for Agility in HR (ICP-AHR) & Business Agility Foundation (ICP-BAF)
Beyond HR Policies: HR Agilist's View 1.Cultural Agility: Emphasized Agile as a cultural shift, embedding daily diversity celebrations via 'Agile Circles' for belonging 2.Human-Centric HR: Recognized individual stories, integrating life events into benefits for organizational celebration/support 3.Journey Mapping: Mapped employee experiences, tailoring policies to be as user-centric as intuitive apps 4.Policy Team Diversity: Established cross-functional teams for holistic, inclusive policies, dismantling silos 5.Embrace Change: Adopted a proactive approach to HR policies, foreseeing workforce needs in ever-changing landscapes Agile's essence in HR goes beyond policies; it’s about cultivating a dynamic, people-focused organizational culture