Whether it’s written or unwritten, there is a contract of
employment between you and every member of your team. Some
elements of it are legal such as those dealing with employee
rights and your obligations as a business owner, while others
are culture or workplace related. These all become the rules of
your workplace – ‘the way we do things here’.
Most people don’t mind having a set of rules to live by and work
under; it’s the way our society functions. Rules are also an
important part of good business management. If you clearly state
the rules of your workplace in writing and make sure they’re
understood by everyone on your team, you will greatly reduce the
chance for disputes or disagreements eventuating.
If you haven’t already got a basic set of rules for your
business this is a good time to start putting them together. The
set of rules should tell your people what they are expected to
do in relation to their jobs and to the business. It’s not about
the duties in their position descriptions - it needs to cover
those aspects of workplace behavior and culture that apply to
everybody in the organization. Your rules should be clearly
stated, directly related to the business, reasonable and lawful,
and impartially enforced. Rules that are ambiguous,
discriminatory or that are inadequately enforced will only lead
to problems and disputes.
Follow applicable legislation
Every workplace is covered by legislation, ranging from laws
concerning workplace safety to basic rates of pay. These vary
somewhat from one jurisdiction to another, but whatever rules
you want to institute in your workplace must comply with all
other overriding legislation.
Protect yourself and the business
Rules can help protect a business from legal and financial
liabilities by providing a code that defines what’s acceptable
and what isn’t. If an employee willfully disobeys a rule that’s
intended to protect them from harming themselves or others, the
employer’s liability may be reduced or eliminated if the
employee’s actions cause an injury. In the same way, an
employee who is dismissed for bullying or threatening others at
work may not be seen by a court to have been treated unfairly if
they had been made aware that such behavior was against the
rules of the business.
The way rules are enforced can directly
affect a business and its owner. An employer who is aware of
violations to either applicable workplace legislation or the
rules set by the business, yet does nothing about the situation,
may be held liable for any consequences of the rules being
broken.
Create a better workplace
Applying appropriate rules can create a better atmosphere at
work. Having rules that promote safety, security and mutual
respect between members of the team can go a long way toward
making your workplace safer and happier. Removing the
possibility of confusion or conflict is always beneficial to the
work environment.
Where to put rules in place
There are three areas that are especially important when
establishing rules in any business:
1. Socially unacceptable behavior – rules should cover the
prohibition of, and possible disciplinary consequences for,
unacceptable behavior such as bullying and the use of profanity.
2. Illegal behavior – rules should restate applicable
legislation, such as that which prohibits racial vilification,
mistreatment of religious minorities, unsafe actions and theft.
Illegal behavior should always be reported to the appropriate
authorities for your own protection.
3. Behavior that affects the business – rules need to cover
the business’ specific requirements for workplace behavior,
including areas like your smoking policy, as well as policies
regarding sick leave, non-disclosure of intellectual property
and acceptable use of company property.
An unstructured workplace environment is not good for
productivity. As an employer you may have complete confidence
that every member of your team will behave themselves and do
exactly as they should while at work, but only a set of written
rules will offer you some protection should things ever go
wrong.
Do
Your Market Research by Telephone
very
business needs to know what’s going on around it. Information
about competitors’ prices, new products coming out, customer
attitudes and even emerging trends in the marketplace, can be
useful to know. Much of this essential information can be easily
collected by just using your phone.