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I know that sometimes organizations – and human resources departments – are accused of having too many policies. But having good policies is necessary. The emphasis here being on the word “good”. 

Policies provide consistency. And consistency can assist with maintaining compliance, streamlining processes / procedures, and providing efficiency. One other thing to remember, policies and procedures are two different things. Think of a policy as a broad guideline or rule that sets expectations. A procedure is a step-by-step list of instructions.

 So, a policy is the “why” we do things, and a procedure is “how”. Often policies and procedures are written together. An example might be the company policy that says employees taking time off is important for mental and physical health. The procedure then lists the steps for how employees request time off. 

While policies and procedures are different, many organizations develop them together because it creates alignment, which leads to better consistency. Again, the key is developing a good policy. So, I thought we should review the steps for developing one.

6 Steps for Developing a Good Company Policy

Decide if you really need a policy. This can be the hardest step. What is the purpose of the policy? For example, organizations have safety policies like wearing ear coverings if the decibel levels are too high. Yes, this is also a law under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), but it’s designed to keep employees safe and healthy. So, companies have policies. 

Organizations also need to decide if there’s a need for a separate policy or just additions / adjustments to existing policy. One example I’m hearing about is social media. When social media was new and just becoming mainstream, many organizations developed separate policies. Now that we’ve been working with social media for a while, I’m hearing less about separate policies and more about updating existing policies to include social media. 

Establish who needs to be involved in developing the policy. There are company policies and department policies. Both impact employees so include the impacted departments in policy development. It might be helpful to also include accounting because policies might usually have financial impact. And don’t forget legal, whether that’s in-house counsel or an external partner. 

Depending on the policy topic, another resource could be internal subject matter experts (SMEs). Let’s say, the organization is developing a policy regarding digital file maintenance. The company might want to talk with their technology team to make sure the policy aligns with privacy and security protocols. Bottom-line: HR should not be developing policies in a silo.

Research any pertinent details and draft the policy. This is a continuation of the last point about subject matter experts. If the organization is developing a policy, they might need to do some research to help form their opinion. Once all the data is reviewed, then the policy can be drafted. Again, this may or may not include a procedure.

For instance, I’ve worked for organizations that had policies about rehiring employees. Some organizations were apprehensive about it; others encouraged it. Some were open to bridging an employee’s service depending on how long they were gone, others not so much. But HR was responsible for providing data about how many employees the company rehires and how long the gap is in their employment. This helped the organization decide if it was necessary to have a policy. 

Oh, and a quick side note regarding my rehire example: Please remember that no-rehire policies cannot be discriminatory or retaliatory. Also, some states could have provisions that make no-rehire clauses unenforceable. You should check with legal counsel if you have any questions. 

Conduct a policy review. Once the policy is drafted, the management team needs to buy-into the policy. Hopefully, if the right people are involved in policy development, the buy-in process has been taking place all along. But just in case it hasn’t, allow time for managers to express their concerns and talk about how the policy will be implemented on a daily basis in the operation. Policies also need to align with other policies. The policy being developed needs to be reviewed along with existing policies to ensure that it’s not competing with another policy. 

Also, policies need to be enforceable. If an organization has a policy and no one follows it, and nothing happens when an employee doesn’t follow it … it’s kinda the same as not having a policy. So, when the organization develops a policy, there should be a conversation about holding people accountable for following it.

Create a communications strategy. When the organization creates a new policy OR changes an existing policy, there should be a communications plan. It’s only fair to let current employees know about the change. There are many different ways to communicate policies:  in-person / online, all company meeting / department meeting, verbally / in writing. Announcing a new / changed policy in a variety of ways could be best. That way employees hear the message multiple times in multiple ways before the effective date. 

This is a good time to remember that if the organization is adding or changing a policy that might take something away from employees, this should be discussed with legal counsel and with those employees. For example, a company might be implementing a new policy that at the same time will sunset a legacy policy. I once worked for an organization that paid 100% of an employee’s health care coverage. Then they changed it to where employees paid $10. I’m sure some of you are thinking … it’s only $10. That’s not the point. It was covered completely and now it wasn’t going to be. 

This story about the health care change also reminds me how the company decided to communicate the change. Yes, they did all the things we’ve talked about  including company meetings, memos, etc. But they also brought together groups of employees from around the company to learn about the new health care benefits. The employee groups included the company’s biggest fans and harshest critics. This was very successful because when employees were chatting about the change – usually in the breakroom when no one from HR is around – if someone said something incorrect, the information was corrected by another employee. 

Regularly review and update as necessary. The last step is to keep the policy current. New laws happen all the time. Or possibly a law is repealed, and the company needs to decide if they’re going to maintain the policy. Companies might change a policy because it will help them attract, engage, and retain talent. Also, organizations should review policies and procedures after an incident to ensure that something doesn’t go wrong because a policy was out of date or unclear. 

The organization and the HR team should have a schedule and a strategy for reviewing policies to ensure they’re up to date. In fact, as I’m typing this, I’m realizing that maintaining policies is a separate conversation to itself. 

If you want to learn more about maintaining relevant and compliant policies, I hope you’ll join me and the Case IQ team for a webinar on exactly that “5 Steps for Maintaining Relevant – And Compliant – Company Policies”. The webinar will be held on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 2p Eastern. And as always, if you’re already committed, sign up anyway and get the recording. 

Good policies help employees understand the rules and do the right thing. Having a consistent procedure for developing and implementing policies is good for the business. It’s a win for everyone. 

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27/04/2025 – 12:02 /Sharlyn Lauby
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