Every company has well-defined policies that determine the general guidelines of how employees, managers, and stakeholders should behave and define the company's treatment of employees. 

Effective policies reach all the edges of a business, from clarifying how employees will be rewarded to the proper methodology for substance abuse.

Due to their relevance, policies must be well-defined and clear for everyone. In this sense, they should be written in plain language, effectively communicating the idea and ensuring consistency. The proper document for this is a Company Policy Template. 

Company policies are internal documents organizations create that provide structured instructions about how employees must act while working and ensure legal compliance. These documents are prepared in collaboration with management support and human resources.

Sometimes policies and procedures are confused. Both are part of the employee handbook and are directly related. 

Procedures involve all the methods you and your employees use to carry out their tasks and business operations. These also include tools and best practices to achieve expected results and protect the company’s interests, such as intellectual property, products, etc. 

Policies indicate what employees and employers must do to ensure the basic minimum of coexistence in the relationship between parties. For example, policies can provide guidance about legal procedures both parties have to abide when asking for special benefits.

You can use dozens or hundreds of company policies for your business. Most depend on the industry in which your company develops its products. Some of the most relevant policies are the following:

• Equal opportunity policies. These policies indicate how your business can perform fair treatment in the workplace. These include affirmative action policies that dismiss inappropriate behaviors and diversity initiatives to promote equality at different levels of your organization.   

• Employee code and ethics policy. The conduct and ethics policies specify your company's beliefs about how employees should behave. This policy should outline general social norms, correct behaviors in the workplace, dress code, and more. 

• Workplace safety, health, and security policies. These policies outline guidelines that ensure employees work safely, whether operating in an office, in a quarry, or wherever. These policies have as a final goal to protect employees from accidents and ensure their health. Besides, a strong security policy also protects your intellectual and physical property. 

• Attendance and Time Off Policy. In this policy document, you establish the rules regarding absences and schedules. It outlines how employees should proceed when late, miss work, or schedule paid or unpaid time.     

• Compensation policies. These policies outline your business's practices to determine employee rewards and benefits. Compensation policies do not strictly dictate how employees will be paid but provide the protocol for the compensation structure.  

• Abuse policies. These policies prevent employees from discrimination and sexual harassment and establish response guidelines. 

Company policies are simple documents that indicate how your business aligns with labor laws and guidelines. Still, most policy documents should contain the following data.

• Title. The policy’s name.

• Reason or purpose. Why your business needs the policy.

• Scope. What the particular policy applies to.

• Responsibility. The person responsible for the appliance of the policy.

• General policy statement. The different aspects and tangible things that the policy needs to be applied.

• Disciplinary action. The action that must be taken when the policy is violated.

• Relevant documents. Needed additional information about the subject.

Crafting a company's policies for your business can be remarkably straightforward when you have a clear understanding of the precise steps to follow. Armed with this knowledge, you'll find yourself capable of creating these policies shortly. 

1. Get Legal Advice

The company policies you’ll clarify will depend on your organization's industry and how employees relate to each other. They also will hinge on the country where your business works and the organizational values. Once you understand what policies your company needs thanks to a legal counsel, define them.

2. Define Priorities 

The second step is deciding the most relevant policies for your company, i.e., what guidelines you should outline first. For example, if your organization expands to other countries, you should define policies for remote work and other legislatures.   

3. Establish Your Goals

To drive your organization towards success, define and communicate your goals while establishing coherent policies for your workers. Design a Human Resource strategy to effectively convey the direction of these policies and the related goals to your employees.

4. Write Your Policies in the Proper Software

Writing a policy is not difficult if you cover all the basics and effectively communicate expectations about the relationship between the company and employees. Remember, the legal department should review those new and existing policies for fulfilling all guidelines and new regulations and indicate policy violations.

As company policies contain explanations, measures, and commitments, the best software to easily gather them is MS Word which you can get by acquiring a copy of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global. This app is perfect for creating all the important policies for employers and employees and quickly sharing them via the system you consider optimal. Additionally, they allow you to use the templates provided below, helping you save precious time on creating a company policy document from scratch.

5. Utilize Templates

To facilitate the process of creating a document of this nature, it’s recommended that you use a template to set up your organization's values better and efficiently communicate policies. A proper pre-built template is also great for establishing and adjusting a basic policy to your requirements. Below we offer you some useful templates to guide the process.

IT Policy and Procedure Template

Download it from Smartsheet.

This free template defines IT policies and procedures that can help your organization to prevent privacy and data breaches. Depending on the size of your company and the number of tasks involved in the internal procedures, you may utilize one or several documents according to previous circumstances. Since this document is a Microsoft Word file, you must consider adding steps to facilitate management, such as visitor policy, password policy, etcetera, and any considerations you consider pertinent to your organization.

Free Health and Safety Policy Template

Download it from Easylegaldocs.

This free document outlines the company's efforts to protect its employees' health and security. It includes six sections to describe the general scope, responsibilities, obligations, and application. Here you can specify the measures your company will take to prevent employees from risks and hazards. You can also explain strategies you will implement, such as providing information, safety facilities, or listening to workers’ complaints. This template is easy to use since it contains pre-built tactics that any business can utilize.  

Company Quality Policy

Download it from AllBusinessTemplates.

This simple document summarizes all the measures and strategies your company is committed to implementing. These measures include providing high-quality installations, systems, inductions, and training to enhance skills and abilities and promote quality improvements and control processes. This template is great either for employees, customers, and production phases.

Website Privacy Policy Template

Download it from Templatearchive.

This free privacy policy template is a great tool to explain how the software company works and protects users’ information. It also defines the cookies the software company encompasses to collect data and control the security of websites or applications.

You can also use this free and completely customizable template to modify current and include new policies.

6. Implement Your Policies

Implementing policies is an “abstract” process since, after writing them down, you can put them to work at any time you want. Of course, a necessary step is to publish them in the employee handbook. This way, you ensure compliance with policies and that employees know your company's new rules and guidelines. Of course, implementing policies will depend on the employee and HR department ratio.

7. Publish Your Policies and Put Them Available for All

Publish your policies to make them available and easily accessible from anywhere for your employees or other companies. 

You can share your policies with your employees, managers, and other stakeholders in several ways. For example, you can print them and give them hand-to-hand or create a digital copy. Of course, both should fulfill certain standards and be clear guidance. You should also create a company intranet where employees can verify policies or declare legal issues. You can also send a memorandum or document specially prepared to be read on a cell phone and share it via Whatsapp, email, etc.  

8. Review and Update

Keep in mind that policies such as workplace health and safety policy or data security policy may change over time. You must review whether they fulfill the current reality of your business. In other words, make sure that when creating policies or putting them into practice, they align with changes in internal, national, state, or federal regulations. You can also modify them to fit organizational shifts. 

We hope we have clarified all the points regarding company policies. This way, you can take all the measures to prevent discrimination because of employees’ sex, race, age, sexual orientation, etcetera, and define the work hours, rewards, and expected labor behavior.

In a nutshell, you can define all the aspects you consider relevant within your organization. What’s more! We recommend you do it by remarking details to improve relationships between you and your employees.

Last but not least, remember to navigate RoyalCDKeys’s website and blog. We are continuously uploading different tools, resources, and other templates you can use to define all your policies and other procedures within your organization.