HR communications policies

Effective people management and development is based on drawing sound policies and procedures whose aims are to improve communication with employees and managers and build a more satisfied, productive workforce. The Human Resources communications policy is a document covering all communications across the organisation.

The communications policy will deliver HR policy information and benefits in a consistent and effective manner. These policies are maintained, reviewed and updated by HR in consultation, where applicable, with trade unions.

Policy manuals exemplify downward communication intended to help employees perform their jobs. The aim of the policy is to improve policy compliance and have all the answers that an employee might ask in black and white. This will effectively reduce or possibly eliminate calls to the HR department.

HR policies and procedures can help organisations develop fair and consistent approaches to managing and developing people and can protect against legal claims. They can provide all employees with guidance about their own and the organisation's responsibilities.

As an organisation grows, or the environment in which it operates changes, its need for HR policies and procedures will change. New policies will need to be developed and formalised, or existing policies reviewed, to ensure a consistent and fair approach - and to avoid wasting time by having crises dealt with in an ad hoc way.

Having a communications policy is crucial today because communication systems are not only an essential tool for doing business, but also an integral part of the daily work of many employees. Since these systems affect virtually every organisational function, from customer service to production, employers should adopt a communication systems policy that identifies the proper use of communication systems and encourages employees to explore new information resources.

This type of policy should provide information regarding monitoring employee communications, including telephone conversations, voice mail and e-mail, improper use of employer equipment, opening mail in the office, and expectations of employee privacy.

Employers are becoming increasingly frustrated at the amount of time employees spend on the Internet or on personal e-mails. Naturally, they turn to monitoring. But is keeping tabs on your staff justified or legal?

A communications policy can help with compliance to the law, but employers also have a number of considerations, legal and practical, in arriving at a policy. Should they ban all personal e-mail and Internet use?

This solves the problem of having to distinguish between personal communications and business communications (intercepting the content of personal communications is not authorised by regulations) but may not be very popular with employees who often see e-mail and Internet as a perk. An alternative is to offer employees use of a personal template so that it is always clear when an e-mail is personal and the employer can ensure that it does not monitor the content of these.

Employees may have human rights concerns if all personal telephone use is banned, so employers must consider what is reasonable and admissable, e.g. allow reasonable use or provide payphones.

One of the key principles of the Data Protection Act is telling people what is happening with their information, and this is where a communications policy is a useful tool. One key advice to employers is therefore to establish a policy and communicate it.

The policy must be uniformly enforced through employee education, ongoing monitoring and appropriate discipline. Obtaining prior consent also serves to diminish an employee's expectation of privacy and will generally protect employers from liability. One of the key goals for an employer's communications policy is to eliminate any employee expectations that business communications are confidential.

Once an employer is satisfied that he has lawful authority to intercept employees' communications, he must make reasonable efforts to inform people about interception. This is where communications policies again come in, telling employees what may happen.

Employers may also have to consider how they make reasonable efforts to inform third parties. Can they include this in their terms of business, on their e-mail disclaimer notices, on their Websites? As a basic checklist, employers should develop a clear policy, communicate it to employees, create audit trails, enforce the policy and consider alternative technical means. Consistency in enforcement of a policy is particularly important. A policy manual in the form of free download or purchasable software.

An excellent example of a communications policy (governing authorised use of Internet and e-mail facilities assuming that limited personal use is permitted) is available for free download from www.outlaw.com, which can be adapted to your company's needs.

The culture of the organisation and the complexity of the policies will influence how a policy is introduced. For example, when it comes to communication, hard copies could be given to employees or put on notice boards, or 'soft' copies circulated by e-mail or placed on an intranet.

Communications policies are flexible documents, able to adapt to changes in strategy and direction. They are open and transparent, suited in tone to the culture of the organisation and developed through the involvement of employees and interested stakeholders.

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