Smaller businesses often don’t have the resources to create their own workplace policies, and often do without. The good news is that they no longer have to.
A recent Daily Advisor article talked about the problems businesses have faced from the new practice of employee blogging.
This writing of personal diaries on the Internet, for all the world to see, encourages worker creativity and has even been used as a marketing tool. But it’s also led to companies and co-workers being defamed and trade secrets being revealed.
Other new technologies have brought issues as well. Video surveillance of employee areas has increased security but also led to invasion of privacy suits. Email and instant messages have sped up communication but also left a trail of sensitive documents that have fallen into the wrong hands. And even the common cell phone, so good at reaching workers wherever they are, disrupts meetings and has even led to car accidents.
What it all points to is the need for control over how and when these devices are used in your business. And that leads to the need for written policies concerning them. That’s usually no problem for larger companies with the resources to produce policies. Smaller companies are a different story.
Drafting Your Own Policies an Extensive, Expensive Process
The reason is that a policy is a legal document of your business and, therefore, must be drafted and reviewed with the same care as a law. You need to research all aspects of the topic and discuss your findings with all concerned. The policy will then most likely need to be revised, and reviewed again, perhaps by several levels of management.
Finally, the policy will need a legal review to ensure it meets both federal and state standards. Does the policy violate any safety regs? Does it ensure equal opportunity? Will it reasonably accommodate those with special needs? These are the questions your lawyers and, if you’re not careful, government agencies, will ask.
No wonder small companies so often apply the “hope solution” to new policy challenges. They do nothing and hope nothing goes wrong!
We’d like to suggest an answer for these smaller businesses. It’s BLR’s prewritten policy program, 75 Must-Have HR Policies. Its origins are in BLR’s popular Encyclopedia of Prewritten Personnel Policies, which offers hundreds of policies on every conceivable subject, but which also sells for a price commensurate with its completeness.
What our editors have done for this new program, however, is pull out the 75 policies you most need, every one of them professionally written and legally reviewed. Then we’ve put them on a single CD, for ease of access and storage. Just boot it up and pull off whatever policy you need, then customize it right on your computer, with your company’s name and specifics. Finally, print and distribute. That’s all there is to it.
What subjects are covered by the policies in the program? You can read the alphabetical list, from “attendance” to “telephone monitoring,” by clicking on the link below. But it’s our guess that you’ll find everything you need to set a policy base on which your business can operate efficiently and legally.
There’s one more reason for our recommendation of this program to companies of limited means. It’s downright inexpensive, averaging just about $1 a policy. What’s more, the marketing folks are also providing a bonus special report on How to Write Effective and Legal Policies at no charge as an additional incentive to order.
Bottom line: It’s a good deal that meets an important need, and definitely worth a look. Click below for full information.
For more information or to order 75 Must-Have HR Policies, and get the FREE Special Report mentioned above, click here.
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