Company culture is continuing to gain more and more momentum as a crucial consideration for both attracting candidates and retaining your current workforce. Presenting your business as one that embraces both mandatory, legislative standards, and in addition, actively enhances and implements additional HR policies to benefit your employees, is the way in which you can really begin to differentiate your business as an employer of choice. It is what will set you apart from your competitors.
Indeed, we would argue that HR policies have an even bigger role to play in an organisation – as well as setting the tone for the culture, they are the way in which businesses can drive success and profitability. For example, according to the 2023 Global Culture Report (O.C. Tanner Institute), strong workplace communities result in a 62% increase in employee tenure, 43% increase in retention and 38% less burnout. We will be discussing how policies can impact your profitability in more detail in our upcoming webinar on 25th June 2024, sign up here.
This blog will explore The Impact of Policies on Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Attraction and Retention. It will explore essential HR policies for employers and why they’re important as well as the additional workplace policies that are rising in popularity in the UK and the impact of implementing such policies can have on your company culture. Ultimately, it’ll demonstrate how embracing HR policies can help businesses to improve the engagement and retention of your current workforce, whilst also boosting your curb appeal to potential candidates.
Essential HR Policies
Although essential HR policies may seem a bit obvious at first, they are important for protecting you and your staff, and being sure to implement them correctly can enhance your company culture and reap rewards. However, to realise the benefits from these, it’s important to ensure that your policies are consistently applied and present a fair and transparent offering to your current and potential workforce.
When we speak about essential HR policies, we mean things like:
- Health and Safety
- Disciplinary and Dismissal
- Grievance
- Performance Management
- Harassment and Bullying
- Probation
- Sickness and Absence
- Annual Leave
- Carers Leave
- Maternity / Paternity Leave
- Pension
Having solid HR policies for Performance Management, Harassment and Bullying, Probation, and Disciplinary Action helps to set a standard for your business and allows employees to understand workplace boundaries and expectations. This not only protects you as an employer, but employees will also be motivated to work to the required standards, knowing that if they, or a coworker, is not meeting standards, fair action will be taken.
Sickness and Absence, Carers Leave and Maternity/Paternity policies ensure you’re compliant with UK employment law but can also be a great way to attract and retain staff. All UK Businesses have an obligation to provide a certain level of cover, however, many choose to enhance their offering by extending paid periods of leave. Enhanced leave can be a pivotal factor in employee satisfaction and attraction, with a recent survey finding one in two employees would accept lower pay in exchange for improved tailored benefits (read more).
Implementing a Health and Safety policy is a no brainer. It not only protects your business from potential legal repercussions, but your employees will feel at ease knowing boundaries are in place to ensure their personal safety.
Enrolling permanent staff onto a pension scheme is a legal requirement, however, some employers choose to increase their contributions and present the scheme as a company benefit. With the current financial crisis, enhanced pension schemes are becoming more sought after and could help you stand out in the competitive labour market.
It’s important, and a legal requirement, to adhere to the latest legislative requirements. You can revise all the recent amendments for 2024 in our blog, here.
Additional HR Policies
We all know the job market is a competitive place and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to attract and retain staff. In the wake of these difficulties, a good employee value proposition (EVP) is incredibly desirable, presenting the expectations, values and rewards for employees that set you apart from your competitors.
Introducing additional policies with the intention of improving company culture and the benefit offering to employees is a great way to boost your EVP. Some of the additional policies that have been gaining momentum and becoming ‘expected’ recently are:
- Menopause Policy
- Flexible Working
- Remote Working
- Four Day Working Weeks
- Enhanced Family Leave
- Reasonable Adjustments
Menopause policies are becoming a popular way of empowering your workforce. A recent study found that 67% of women who have experienced menopausal symptoms felt they had a negative impact on them at work. By adapting your business to be more menopause friendly through simple steps like providing fans or air-conditioning, designating areas for employees to take a break if they feel overwhelmed and providing support for women who may feel at risk if their symptoms affect their productivity, your female employees will feel more comfortable at work, positively impacting your retention rates, diversity, and inclusivity.
We all know that since the pandemic, flexible working, remote working and four day working weeks have drastically risen in popularity. Employees are more focused than ever on achieving the perfect work/life balance, however finding roles that offer flexibility, part time hours and remote working is becoming increasingly hard, with research showing remote job adverts are down by a third compared to 2022. By embracing a flexible or remote working policy as part of your company culture, you will appeal to a more diverse talent pool (including the part-time workforce), you’ll stand out from the crowd and your current employees will feel more valued and motivated.
UK employment law states that employers must give staff time off to deal with family emergencies, however, this does not have to be paid leave. Enhanced family leave is becoming a popular additional policy, offering employees several paid days to deal with family emergencies such as illness, childcare issues etc. Policies such as this are invaluable, and they are a guaranteed way to keep employees with family commitments motivated and attract candidates to your business.
Welcoming reasonable adjustment policies into your workplace can have a positive impact on company culture and make your business more inclusive. Reasonable adjustments could take the form of adaptability of working patterns, working environments and equipment to suit employee’s needs, and may be particularly desirable for neurodiverse employees.
To summarise, ensuring your business implements desirable and beneficial policies is key to attracting and retaining staff, and developing a strong company culture. Research from our 2024 vision highlights 71% of the businesses surveyed have modified their people-related HR or working policies in the last 12 months, to enhance and improve employee experience. If you’ve not yet taken the plunge, maybe now is the time to do it!
We hope this blog has expressed the value of policies when looking to enhance your company culture. If your business would benefit from a review of your existing HR policies, and recommendations on how to improve, please contact us to find out more about how The Curve Group can help. We’re ready to listen.
