The Importance of Implementing Workplace Policies Beyond Just Sharing Them

Workplace policies and standards of behaviour are essential for creating a positive and productive work environment. They provide a framework for how employees should interact with each other and with customers, and they help to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and with respect.

However, simply stating that certain behaviours will not be tolerated is often not enough. This is because everyone's view on what is acceptable or funny is different. What one person considers to be harmless banter; another person may find offensive.

This is why preventative training is so important. By providing employees with an opportunity to hold a mirror up to their lived experiences through scenario-based training, they can see how their behaviour can come across to others, even if their intention was to be humorous. Some may try to undermine this as ‘wokeism’ however, this is to do with respect and empathy for those in our communities and workplaces.

Why are workplace policies and standards of behaviour important?

1.        First, they help to create a safe and respectful work environment. When employees know what is expected of them, they are less likely to engage in behaviour that could harm or offend others.

2.        They can help to improve productivity. When employees feel respected and valued, they are more likely to collaborate with one another, expand in their creativity and be more engaged in their work. A bonded and united team will play to the individuals strengths by doing so this can lead to increased productivity and better business outcomes.

3.        They can protect the company's reputation. In today's world, companies are under increasing scrutiny for their behaviour. If a company has a reputation for tolerating harassment or discrimination, it can damage its brand and make it difficult to attract and retain talent.

4.        Reinforce psychological safety – Weak policies that fail to address unacceptable behaviour erode trust between individuals and the organisation. Inability to deliver fair consequences signals inadequate policies and a lack of understanding, ultimately damaging psychological safety and discouraging reporting.

Why is preventative training important?

As mentioned earlier, simply stating that certain behaviours will not be tolerated is often not enough. This is because everyone's view on what is acceptable or funny is different.

Preventative training can help to address this issue by providing employees with real-life scenarios that they can relate to. This type of training can help employees develop a deeper understanding in how their behaviour can come across to others, even if their intention was to make a joke. It can also help employees to understand the difference between macro behaviours and micro behaviours. Macro behaviours are overt acts of discrimination, such as using racial slurs or making sexually suggestive comments, which are usually obvious to identify as unacceptable. Micro behaviours are more subtle, meaning that they’re more difficult to spot and to call out, but they can still be harmful. It is important that individuals able to pinpoint micro behaviours and put a stop to it before the impact escalates. As otherwise it can lead to decreased productivity, increased stress, and even legal action. Managers should demonstrate exemplary behaviour through role modelling the calling out of unacceptable behaviours.

Overcoming the barriers to speaking out.

In our past training sessions, delegates have highlighted common barriers to reporting and individuals speaking out these are: repercussions, unclear processes, lack of results, past inaction, and isolation. We've seen these firsthand. However, these barriers are easily overcome. The crucial first step? Clarity. When the entire workforce understands policies and reporting, and when training effectively reinforces these and highlights the impact of reporting unacceptable behaviour, we build a truly safe and healthy workplace.

What are some examples of micro behaviours?

• Making jokes that are based on stereotypes

• Excluding someone from a conversation because of their race or gender

• Making comments about someone's appearance

• Ignoring someone's ideas or contributions

• Interrupting someone when they are speaking

• Making assumptions about someone's abilities based on their race or gender

• Using demeaning or patronizing language

  
  

Conclusion

Workplace policies and standards are essential to setting boundaries and to be able to implement repercussions. However, in most of our clients’   cases, their employees are not sure where to access these written policies, do not understand or know the full extent of these and the employees tend to lack the deeper level of understanding to how these policies directly impact them and their behaviour. Often, there is a mix of judgement between managers of the organisation where some will follow the policies and standards to the letter and others will use this as more of a guideline considering the intention rather than the impact alone. This could be pinpointed to numerous factors; the lack of understanding the policies, individuals having no ownership over these policies and managers not believing in them. This is where education around the policies is important. It is as important to explore how the policy is written; is it realistic for employees to follow and is there an adequate feedback loop within the process – how simple is the feedback process?

When there is a mix understanding of the policies as well as a mixed approach in handling unacceptable behaviours this causes some employees to believe that their view points don’t matter, they will stifle their experiences which will often lead to isolation and effect productivity of the team.

Enlisting training to address the policies and standards set by the organisation helps form the deeper understanding of how everyone is responsible for their own language and actions as well as exploring intent vs the impact of their actions. If we can make everyone more aware of their micro behaviours and unconscious bias then we could help to support a positive working environment and culture, which in turn will reduce workplace incidences of unacceptable behaviours as well as help to increase the workplace productivity.