Three Hr Policies Every Business Should Have

Workplace policies and procedures are an effective means of ensuring that employees are aware of their obligations in the workplace. They can also serve an additional purpose of assisting employers to comply with their legal obligations.

As HR Advance includes a range of policies that exist to cover nearly every aspect of the employment relationship, it is important that employers implement only the most relevant policies for their particular business. We discuss below the three policies that we consider to be the most important policies an employer should implement.

Anti-discrimination and equal employment opportunity


There is an abundance of legal regulation that exists at the federal and state levels that concerns anti-discrimination, freedom of association, bullying, vilification, harassment, and equal opportunity.


An Anti-Discrimination & EEO Policy can be effective in alerting employees to certain types of behaviour that is unacceptable in the workplace.
A policy of this nature can also assist in alerting employees who may be subjected to unacceptable behaviour, to ways in which they can seek assistance from their employer to eliminate the behaviour.
The policy can also assist employers to defend themselves from allegations that they are vicariously liable for the actions of employees which contravene relevant legislation.

Of course, all employers should also supplement their Anti-Discrimination & Equal Employment Opportunity policy with relevant procedures, training, instruction, and supervision.

Workplace surveillance


Some states and territories have legislation that regulates the surveillance of employees while they are at work.
The surveillance can relate to computer usage, email usage, camera, tracking, or phone. Using various surveillance methods can be useful for increasing safety and productivity within the workplace.
In some cases, the legislation requires employers to provide advance notice to employees of the commencement of surveillance.

The HRA Advance Internet, Email and Computer Use Policy serves to notify employees of the type of surveillance that exists in the workplace, the frequency of the surveillance and the purpose. It also aims to assist employers to meet the requirements of relevant legislation by having a workplace surveillance policy.




Beware of promissory statements!!!


If an employer does not want their policies to become binding terms of an employment contract then it is important that the policy avoids using promissory or contractual language. Similarly, employment contracts can be drafted to expressly exclude the policies as contractual employment terms.


The importance of not making promissory or contractual statements in policies was highlighted by the appeal decision of the Full Federal Court in Goldman Sachs JB Were Services Pty Ltd v Nikolich.

In that case, the Court upheld the original decision of Justice Wilcox which awarded an employee more than $500,000 damages for psychological injury arising from a breach of a term of a policy that was found to be contractual.

Lawful and reasonable directions

It is also important to note that a failure to make a policy contractual in nature does not mean that an employee does not have to follow the policy.

Employers can always require compliance (and enforce discipline) with a policy, provided that the policy can be regarded as a lawful and reasonable directive of the employer

Appropriate training, personnel, and grievance handling

It is also important that policies are 'workable' and consistent with the real experience in the workplace.

Employers must train managers and HR staff in their policies and procedures and monitor the administration and application of the policies.

Where complaints and/or grievances arise in relation to a policy, they should be treated seriously and investigated/actioned promptly and adequately by personnel who understand their role.