Organisational policies

An organisational policy is a set of rules and guidelines that tells everyone in an organisation how they are expected to work. It is written once for the whole organisation, not decided separately by each employee, so everyone follows the same agreed way of doing things.

One code of conduct in every location

A bakery with one shop in Leeds and another in Bristol still works to one set of rules. A policy makes sure staff in either place follow the same standards, so customers get the same service and nobody invents their own way of doing the job. Without one, each shop would drift into its own habits and quality would depend on who happened to be on shift that day.

Responsibilities and procedures

Policies set out staff responsibilities: who is answerable for what, how employees are expected to behave and what is not acceptable, so nobody can say they did not know. For example, a social media policy at a chain of indoor climbing centres might state that staff must never post photographs of customers online.

Policies also state the procedures to follow. A procedure is the step-by-step way to carry out a task or deal with a situation. The policy says what must happen and who is responsible; the procedure breaks that down into the actions a member of staff actually takes.

When something goes wrong

A policy also covers what to do if something goes wrong or a disaster occurs, such as a fire, a flood or a hacker wiping the main server. It states who takes charge and which procedure to follow, so people act instead of panicking.

Policies are not optional advice. Every member of staff works in line with them, whatever their role, including supervisors and senior managers. That gives consistency, clear expectations and a planned response when things go wrong.