Leadership Amongst the Leaders Small changes can bring down a number of grievances and increase efficiency
By Pallavi Jha
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The definition of the ideal workplace has evolved to get to where it is today. Organizations who take their policies seriously are constantly competing with one another to raise the bar further. Simply put, if you give your workforce an unbeatable experience as an employer, they have every reason to put their best foot forward in their roles, and this begins with policymaking.
So how do you create policies that reflect your organization's goal? Start by identifying the core values of your company and your brand: who you are, what you do and what you stand for. Look to foster these values through your organization's policies, by creating an environment where employees enjoy going to work, have a sense of organizational pride, and feel their efforts are noticed and rewarded.
Creating an Environment
In order to adopt useful measures to create a healthy work environment for their workforce, companies must adopt a structured approach. Keep diversity, inclusion and a healthy gender ratio in mind, and also invest in measures that will empower your female workforce to continue to pursue their goals within the organization. Companies across the board are discovering that they must keep young women in full-time jobs if they are going to keep their workforce at critical staffing levels. According to CII-IWN (India Women's Network) report Second Innings, 37per cent of women opt out of their jobs due to maternity or childcare issues. A key strategy for employee wellbeing is ensuring that they have day-care arrangements that allow them to visit their children during the day.
People-Centric Policy
If you want to ensure that your employees take care of your customers, make sure that you put your people at the centre of your policy approach. Part of doing this is to ensure they have a clear value proposition, know precisely what they need to achieve and are given adequate resources to do so. Unravel complicated incentives and simplify processes. Communicate your company's larger purpose in a straightforward manner and do it often in order to increase retention. Ask your workforce what is important to them and be open to changing policy if that is what is in the best interest of the company.
Positively gamify your workplace by rewarding good behaviour, more than penalizing bad. Empower people to make decisions and give them the space to perform. Encourage people in different functions to connect more frequently and converse meaningfully. The same solution might not be applicable for all workplaces, so first assess what makes yours special.
Making the Path
Whilst designing policies, you should do all you can to improve employee wellbeing and minimise the impact that an unhappy workplace could potentially have. Every organisation should come up with a unique program that incorporates its business needs while building an engaged, satisfied and motivated workforce to meet its goals.
Combining a culture where engagement is a key imperative, with strong support from the organization and leaders setting an example, significantly increases the chances that engagement will be made a daily objective.
For an organization to meet with success when it comes to policy making, two important pre-requisites are; high degrees of ownership by the top echelon of management, as well as high levels of engagement from those occupying leadership roles.
As an employer, you should do all you can to improve the wellbeing of employees and minimise the negative impacts an unhappy workplace can have. Every organisation should come up with policies that incorporate their business needs while building an engaged, satisfied and motivated workforce to meet its goals.
