by HR policies may be of two types, namely formal and informal. About informal HR policies, Michael J. Jucius has rightly observed that many personnel policies undoubtedly have just grown. In such instances, everyone seems to know, without being told and without knowing where it originated, that a certain type of decision will be made in certain situations. Such policies are informal, and as such their framing or establishment cannot be analysed.
However, some useful comments can be made about formal policies.
Most of the HR policies should be framed by the higher level of management with the advice and assistance of staff of the HR department. Framing of HR policies is also affected by the consultation and advice of employees, day-to-day problems by the management, social and political changes, international happenings and so on.
It is the responsibility of an efficient and effective HR manager to frame HR policies and make necessary changes and amendments from time to time, whenever necessary. In the framing of HR polices, weightage should be given to the views, advice and suggestions of such people who are likely to be impacted by those HR policies.
Such people make a lot of relevant information available for the formation of HR policies. When the rough draft is made, it should be sent to the representatives of employees, departmental heads and experts for their perusal, comments and suggestions, if any.
Maximum attention should be paid to the comments, criticism and observations made by the employees because these are the people who are most effected by HR policies. Then ultimately, the HR policies should be finally drafted and declared. There is every justification for framing the HR policies by the higher level of management in consultation with other agencies.
It brings consistency and uniformity in the decisions and actions of the Organisation. It can be illustrated with an example. Take the matter of awarding punishment for the acts of indiscipline. In an Organisation, practically every executive has to take disciplinary actions at one time or another.
In case there is no HR policy laying down the nature and quantum of punishment for different types of acts of indiscipline, every executive will have to use his/her own discretion in awarding the punishment. Obviously, it will differ from executive to executive, and cases will not be wanting in which the nature and quantum of punishments may differ widely, though the offence may be the same.
This may lead to discontentment among employees and, thus, may prove an obstacle in the way of the accomplishment of the desired objectives of the organisation. Hence, it will be a better proposition if policies on such matters are framed by higher-level management to cover all parts of the organisation so that there may be uniformity and consistency in the decisions and acts of the management.
While framing HR policies, we should also keep in view the objectives, cost and utility of the policies as also the reaction of trade unions. The successful implementation of a policy needs the sincere cooperation of trade unions. Hence, trade union leaders should also be taken into confidence while framing HR policies or for that matter any policy.
The principles of justice, democracy and equality, and the recognition of the needs of employees, should also be taken care of in the preparation of HR policies. The policies framed having kept in view the aforementioned points, more often than not, prove effective.
Once the HR policies are framed, there comes the problem of their transmission and application. As a matter of fact, it is the middle management and the first-line supervisors who will be more concerned with the transmission and application of HR policies.
Middle management should be responsible for communicating the policy formulation to operating levels. Here, communication involves a lot of functions such as interpretation of policies, clarification of areas of uncertainty and misunderstanding and also imparting training to lower-level staff in policy application.
Formulation of HR policies considers a number of factors- organizational philosophy, HR philosophy, external factors, and internal factors. When all these factors are taken into consideration, there may be a number of policy alternatives in relation to a particular matter, for example, recruitment, development, compensation, etc. That alternative is chosen which matches with the maximum number of factors.
After the choice, a policy is put into action and its results are known. If the policy is workable, it is adopted as a long-term measure. However, each policy should be reviewed periodically to incorporate necessary changes because of changes in any of the factors influencing HR policies.
- Organizational and HR Philosophy:
Organizational philosophy is based on the philosophy of those who create and manage an organization. Philosophy is the set of beliefs and assumptions about how things happen and how they should happen. HR philosophy is derived out of organizational philosophy which reflects the approach that would be adopted in managing human resources in the organization.
- External Factors:
HR polices are formulated not in vacuum but take into consideration various external factors on which the organization does not have control. These external factors are government’s policy towards management of people in the form of various relevant laws, guidelines, and other specifications; nature of competition for human resources, socio- cultural attitudes towards work, productivity of human resources, and image of the organization in the human resource market.
- Internal Factors:
Besides the external factors, there are various internal factors in the organization which influence the applicability of a particular HR policy. These factors are the nature of work in the organization — a computer software company may not have the same HR policies as a manufacturing organization with low-level technology, sudden change in the organization like large-scale diversification or contraction of business activities, pressures from trade unions, etc.
- Policy Alternatives:
When these factors are taken into consideration, various policy options may emerge on a particular issue. For example, when a vacancy arises at a middle management, the issues that emerge are- whether the position should be filled-up by promotion of internal person or it should be filled-up by appointing a new manager.
If the policy states that the position should be filled-up by internal promotion, another issue arises whether the promotion should be made on the basis of merit or seniority and defining the yardsticks for measuring merit or seniority. Similar such issues arise on other matters too.
- Policy Choice:
The identification of various policy alternatives leads to the level where managers can consider some alternatives seriously and choose one of these which is most acceptable in the light of various factors which influence the workability of HR policies. The chosen policy is not necessarily the best one but it is best one in a given situation. That is why it is referred to as the most acceptable one.
- Policy in Action:
When a particular policy is chosen, it is put in action for the guidelines to managers concerned and results are obtained. If the results are in accordance with the objectives of the policy, the policy is workable. However, if the results do not match with the objectives, the same process of policy formulation proceeds with new information inputs regarding all those factors which influence applicability of HR policies.
- Review:
HR policies are formulated in the light of given situation. However, the situational variables are not static but they are dynamic and change with the time. Therefore, in order to integrate these changes, there should be periodic review of HR policies in the light of these factors and suitable changes must be incorporated.
For example, when Madura Garments, a division of Madura Coats, was taken over by Kumarmangalam Birla Group, many managerial personnel left the division which created a managerial vacuum and employee morale turned to be quite low.
In order to rebuild the division, many actions were taken in which change in compensation was one of these and there was a hefty salary hike of 50-60 per cent of all employees.
Because of changed situations, Hindustan Unilever, once the choice employer of managerial talents, has incorporated many changes in its HR policies to attract and retain managerial talents such as provision of 2-3 months training abroad for all new recruits in management cadre, direct entry of experienced managerial talents at the middle management level, offering of stock option scheme, and special emphasis on recruiting woman employees.
Regarding the form in which HR policies should be communicated, it may be mentioned that many policies are stated in oral or may be informal, but it is better if policies are in writing. Written policies are definitely an improvement over oral or informal policies. There is no doubt that written policies need more time and labour to prepare, but they are worth it, because written policies impart precision, permanence and ease of transmission.
They can be produced for auditing or evaluation whenever required without any loss of time. They can also be used as training manuals. Hence, it may be suggested that it is always desirable to prepare policies with a careful selection of words and having clarity and should be in printed form.
So far as the line supervisors are concerned, they should be responsible for applying HR policies. In some cases, the HR department should also be responsible for applying HR policies in their respective fields.
