Human Resources (HR) policies are an essential ingredient of any successful start-up or small business. Good policies will establish a clear understanding for expectations and standards, while also protecting the rights of employers. Unfortunately, while policies are important in a workplace, they can be one of the last things on the mind of a small business owner.

To help you get on the right path to creating business policies and a positive work environment, we’ve compiled a list of 10 HR policies for small and medium-sized businesses.

10 essential HR policies

1. Health and Safety at Work Policy

Workplace hazards can significantly impact your business, from decreased productivity to increased insurance premiums and obligations like sick pay and hiring temporary replacements. A solid H&S policy highlights safety procedures and the responsibilities of all employees to keep the workplace safe. Without adequate HR policies and procedures in H&S, businesses risk failing to identify and mitigate risks, violating legal requirements, and not adhering to applicable laws.

2. Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Policy

Did you know an employer can be held legally responsible for acts of discrimination, bullying or harassment in their business? To minimise this risk, comply with anti-discrimination laws, and demonstrate legal obligations, the business must show that they have taken all reasonable accommodations and steps to prevent discrimination or harassment from occurring. This includes establishing preventative measures and ensuring equal employment opportunities. This is almost impossible if you don’t have comprehensive policies in writing.

Having a well-documented anti-discrimination policy in place communicates clearly to employees what constitutes acceptable behaviour, including banning sexual harassment, discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs, and forms of toxic workplace culture. A good Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination policy will also outline procedures for making and dealing with complaints.

The failure to have a bullying, harassment, and discrimination policy (or individual policies addressing these matters) can contribute to poor workplace culture and, in the case of sexual harassment, amount to a breach of legal compliance.

3. Code of Conduct

A Code of Conduct is important for setting the standards of employee behaviour you expect from your team, and is essential to align with ethical standards and business goals. Common issues such as dress code or appropriate attire, mobile phone use, punctuality, ethical behaviour, and the use of company property will be included in a Code of Conduct.

By outlining unacceptable behaviour and educating employees on business values through a policy, you are in a better position to manage unacceptable conduct in the workplace if and when it arises.

This policy provides objective criteria for addressing misconduct, ensuring employee relations and disciplinary responses are fair and actionable. Its absence may result in inconsistent practices and challenges during the hiring process, onboarding new employees, or addressing performance-related employment issues.

4. Drug and Alcohol Policy

The use of drugs and alcohol during and outside of work hours can present significant safety risks and costs to your business through injuries, absenteeism, damage to company property, and potential breaches of workplace laws. A drugs and alcohol policy will reiterate the business’s zero-tolerance approach while also communicating the potential for employees to be subjected to random testing. Without such guidelines, both the employer and most employees face increased risks of workplace injuries, unsafe practices, and reputational harm, hindering organisational culture and adherence to workplace policies.

5. Leave Policy

For businesses that experience seasonal busy periods, managing annual leave entitlements becomes equally important as operational demands. This is when an effective leave policy can be extremely valuable. A leave policy promotes work-life balance and clarifies expectations for busy periods, business closures, or insufficient leave accrual. The absence of a leave policy can result in inconsistent leave practices and the abuse of leave entitlements. As a result, employers risk running into rostering issues, increased workload for staff, higher levels of employee stress, and poor operational coverage during busy periods.

6. Grievance Policy

Every business will have to deal with a workplace dispute at some point. Having a grievance policy in place acts as an important tool for employees to understand what steps they should follow when making or handling a complaint while meeting employment laws. Consistent processes help to ensure fair treatment for all parties involved.

7. Performance Counselling and Discipline Policy

Performance management is a common practice within any business, but can often be a delicate process. A policy will assist you in remaining compliant with requirements of procedural fairness and provide guidance on how unacceptable conduct will be dealt with.

8. Internet and Email Policy

With the increased use of technology in businesses, it’s important to establish acceptable behaviour, including the appropriate use of the internet. An internet and email policy will define proper use of company technology, mitigating risks to privacy laws, cyber threats, or misuse, as well as the consequences an employee may face for breaching the policy.

In the current technological environment, employers face significant risk when they fail to implement an appropriately detailed internet and email policy. The misuse of email and the internet can amount to a misuse of company property and resources but also expose the business to reputational damage and cyber threats, among other costly consequences.

9. Social Media Policy

Social media use is rapidly increasing and becoming incorporated into our working lives. A social media policy is essential to protecting your company’s reputation, especially if employees list their place of employment on their profiles. On social media, lines between professional and personal networks can become blurred, so it is a good idea to let employees know that how they behave on social media reflects on the business, and what may be the possible consequence of that behaviour. Without a social media policy, employers face the risk of employees engaging in inappropriate behaviour in a public forum creating reputational risk and a permanent digital footprint associated with the business.

10. Privacy Policy

Employers have a responsibility to safeguard the personal information of employees and customers. Therefore, businesses must have a policy in place articulating how their private information is used and managed. A privacy policy makes it clear what information is allowed to be made public and what is required to stay private or within the walls of the company. A privacy policy should include employee health records and personal information such as addresses, phone numbers and emails.

HR policies are a simple way to equip your business to handle a number of common workplace issues. With these 10 policies in place, your business is off to a great start. Of course, polices are not the only documents vital to both ensure and prove to regulators that compliance measures are in place. The most obvious of these is the Employment contract! You can also further reduce risk and ensure your employer obligations are met by keeping records of:

Health and safety risks and hazards generally;
Written records where health and safety is planned or discussed;
Induction documents that prove employees were inducted and had knowledge of procedures and policies; and
Job descriptions.

Compliance with employment laws starts with developing HR policies and procedures

Citation HR’s HR software solution allows you to download all of the above HR policies and more. Better yet, Citation HR’s Workplace Relations Specialists will draft tailored HR Policies to suit your unique business needs.

Got employee relations questions? Our HR experts have the answers

If any of this information has raised questions about your organisational policies, please contact our workplace relations experts via the HR Advice Line.

Not a Citation HR client? To learn more about how our HR services can help your business, please contact us.

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