LO1. Apply Entrepreneurial Workplace Best Practices

Information Sheet 1.1: Workplace Best Practices, Policies and Criteria

Policies and Procedures in the Workplace

Developing and enforcing strong policies and procedures improves workplace culture and protects your organization from potential lawsuits.

What are Policies and Procedures?

Policies and procedures go hand-in-hand but are not interchangeable.

A policy is a set of general guidelines that outline the organization’s plan for tackling an issue. Policies communicate the connection between the organization’s vision and values and its day-to-day operations.

A procedure explains a specific action plan for carrying out a policy. Procedures tells employees how to deal with a situation and when.

Using policies and procedures together gives employees a well-rounded view of their workplace. They know the type of culture that the organization is striving for, what behavior is expected of them and how to achieve both of these.

The Importance of Policies and Procedures

Regardless of your organization’s size, developing formal policies and procedures can make it run much more smoothly and efficiently. They communicate the values and vision of the organization, ensuring employees understand exactly what is expected of them in certain situations.

Formal policies and procedures save time and stress when handling HR issues. The absence of written policies results in unnecessary time and effort spent trying to agree on a course of action. With strict guidelines already in place, employees simply have to follow the procedures and managers just have to enforce the policies.

How to Develop Policies and Procedures in the Workplace

When creating a policy or procedure for your workplace, start by reviewing the mission statement, vision and values. According to the New South Wales Government Industrial Relations, “a workplace policy should:

set out the aim of the policy
explain why the policy was developed
list who the policy applies to
set out what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior
set out the consequences of not complying with the policy
provide a date when the policy was developed or updated”

Once you implement your policies and procedures, the next step is to inform and train employees on them. You can’t expect employees to follow guidelines if they aren’t aware of them. Be sure to schedule regular refresher training sessions, too, to keep employees on track.

Company policies and procedures should not be written once and left alone for decades. Reviewing these documents regularly and updating them when necessary is key to their success. In addition to an annual review, consider updating them when you:

adopt new equipment, software, etc.
see an increase in accidents or failures on-site
experience increased customer complaints
have a feeling of general confusion or increased staff questions regarding day-to-day operations
see inconsistency in employee job performance
feel increased stress levels across the office

Types of Policies and Procedures Every Workplace Needs

Organizations need policies and procedures for a wide range of HR topics. Below are some of the subjects you should consider creating guidelines for.

Policies and Procedures for Attendance

Absenteeism costs wages for the employee who doesn’t show up, wages for a replacement worker, and delays and disruptions to the whole organization. That’s why you need to write (and consistently apply) attendance policies.

These documents can include guidelines on tardiness, vacation time, sick leave, appointments and paid volunteer hours. You can also include the amount of notice required before booking time off. Take your corporate culture into consideration when developing these rules.

Policies and Procedures for Employee Conduct

This is a broad topic and may require multiple, separate policies. Including guidelines on drugs and alcohol use, smoking, performance management and discipline helps employees know what is and is not acceptable behavior at work.

Policies and Procedures for Use of Company Property

The number of ways employees can misuse company property is never-ending. “Renting out the company’s equipment to third parties, intentionally producing scrap product that is actually being sold by the employee, taking vehicles for recreation, hosting their own websites on company servers, even directing other employees to perform tasks that unknowingly benefit the ghost business” are just a few examples of risks your organization could face.

Employees have to use company property in order to do their jobs. Depending on your industry, this could include electronics, medical equipment, vehicles, tools and uniforms. Include guidelines on how to care for company property, as well as how much (if any) and what types of personal use are permitted using company property.

Policies and Procedures for Harassment and Discrimination

Harassment and discrimination affect the entire workplace culture. Keep employees safe and treat them fairly by developing policies and procedures that prohibit behaviors such as:

sexual harassment
bullying
verbal and physical harassment
stalking
hiring discrimination
workplace discrimination

Include information on how to report harassment and discrimination and explain that the company will not retaliate for reporting.

Company policies and procedures are helpful for making your workplace run more efficiently, but they are only effective if you enforce them. Enforcement of the guidelines guarantees your organization’s operational procedures and decision-making processes are uniform and consistent across cases.

When you don’t enforce your procedures, you put your organization at risk. If an employee or external person comes forward with an allegation against your company, having formal policies and procedures in place strengthens your case.

Information Sheet 1.2: Resource Utilization

Resource Utilization: What is it and Why is it Useful?

It’s this shape shifting nature of projects that means, even with the best team and all the resources and time in the world, projects can still fail or not live up to expectations if resources aren’t utilized properly. Resource utilization can be a formula for success.

What is resource utilization?

Resource utilization is the measure of how much of your available resources you are currently using. It can help you to plan how to utilize your resources more effectively to ensure that your organization is being as productive as possible.

Effective utilization of resources can be helpful for both employees and employers. Not only does it ensure that employees have enough work to make their role viable and profitable, on the other side of the spectrum it can also prevent overworking and burnout – providing a more balanced work life overall.

Resource allocation vs. resource utilization

These processes might sound similar, but they have some slight and important differences:

Resource allocation sees a project manager choosing suitable staff for a project and then managing them as the project is completed, reassigning them, or altering their workload if necessary.

Resource utilization, however, is the process of strategically measuring how effective resources are. A resource utilization example is checking if a certain employee is being maximized in between projects. While allocation organizes your project, it’s utilization that makes your project successful.

Calculating a resource utilization formula

When it comes to calculating a resource utilization formula, the most common formula for project managers is full-time equivalent (FTE). This is used to calculate how optimally a resource is being used in terms of available workable hours.

To calculate this, divide the allocated hours a resource will work during a project by the total number of workable hours available in the project. Multiply the result by 100 to create a percentage, and the product will indicate the effectiveness of the resource. For example, if a worker has been allocated to a project for 45 work hours, and that project has a total of 60 workable hours, then that resource has a utilization of 75% as per the FTE resource utilization formula.

What are the benefits of resource utilization?

Resource utilization, ultimately, helps you make the most of your available resources:

Proper utilization of resources is important for maintaining productivity, because it prevents staff from underperforming or being overburdened by workloads and burning out
Projects can be managed with better visibility, reducing the risk of oversights
Maximum utilization of resources gives you a better ROI (return on investments)
It ensures that specific resources aren’t being over- or under-utilized

Resource utilization tips

With an intelligent resource management platform, project managers have dedicated tools to approach and master resource utilization:

Leverage visibility – projects may be run separately, but they affect each other. Instead of viewing projects as separate entities, create a resource utilization plan that allows you to view all resources. This way, you’ll be able to assess capacity and performance more effectively.
Beware of scope creep – projects will inevitably demand extra time and resources, and it’s a project manager’s job to keep them from going over time or budget. Resource management software can put all active projects front and center, utilizing resources equally amongst them to put things in perspective.
Compare booked hours with actual hours – it’s rare that a project ever runs according to plan, so make sure to examine the hours booked in preparation for the project and actual hours worked in real time. This will give you a chance to see if the project plan needs adjusting before anything goes wrong.
Always be prepared – visualize and run scenarios that will help you prepare for a change of circumstances. If your budget changes or if you lose a resource, you’ll be able to adapt more quickly.