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Employees are usually asked to confirm that they have read and understood a number of employment policies. These provide important information about the day-to-day operation of the organisation and often supplement the individual's employment contract.
Traditionally this has been done using printed documents, and signed copies are then filed in the employee's personnel file. Quite often, the employee is given the printed documents to take away and read. HR may then need to follow this up to ensure that the employee has done so.
The HR Policy add-on enables users to publish HR policies and other documents so that employees can indicate that they have read and understood them (via their ESS login).
Most organisations are trying to move away from paper-based records. Asking employees to sign printed copies of HR policies and filing these with their records is not only wasteful, but it also makes it difficult to see who has read which policy (to find out if a policy has been signed by a particular employee you need to go to the filing cabinet and check).
From time to time there are likely to be new policies introduced (for example as legislation and procedures change), and new versions of existing policies will often be required too. Each employee will need to read and acknowledge these new documents. Managing these changes using printed documents can be time-consuming and prone to error.
When employees change jobs they may need to read a different set of HR policies. It is therefore important to be able to associate different HR policies with different roles.
The People Inc. HR Policy feature can be used to distribute and manage the sign-off of a range of different types of document; its use is not restricted to just HR Policies. An organisation may wish to make other documents available using this feature.
The HR Policy add-on (available for the People Inc. employee self-service module) provides HR with the means to manage policy sign-off electronically.
The add-on enables users to give individual employees access to electronic copies of the latest HR policy documents applicable for their job, via their PC, tablet or mobile phone.
Individuals can then indicate that they have read and understood each policy document. The system records the date and time the do this, and also records the-details of the account that was used to access the system.
Documents are grouped together and assigned based on jobs or roles. There may be a group of documents that apply to all jobs; these are usually grouped together as ‘core’ or ‘standard’ documents. Specialist documents can be assigned separately (to specialist roles).
Users can add new policy documents as required and can assign these to groups of jobs. The system will notify employees via e-mail that they need to review the new documents.
When an existing policy needs to be updated, users can replace the existing document with a new version and the system will notify the relevant employees automatically.
The system automatically generates notification e-mails when a new document needs to be read, and reminder e-mails when this has not been done.
Users can monitor the sign-off on HR policies using reports that summarising policy sign-off. This can highlight areas where sign-off is not happening (or is slow). This may be especially important where compliance depends on employee sign-off.
Replacing a paper based system with the People Inc. HR Policy features provides a range of benefits. It saves time, saves paper, provides clarity and accountability and can help with compliance. It also makes policy documents (and sign-off information) available 24/7.
It saves time. The distribution and collation of signed-off policies is quick and simple. There is no longer a need to chase individuals for sign-off, and there is no longer a need to update records manually. It is also quick and easy to update a policy (and inform staff that this has happened)
It provides clarity. It is easy to see who has read a particular policy (and who has not). It minimises the number of queries because staff always know where to go to review the latest version of a policy (and can see which policy documents they need to read).
It saves paper and printing costs (and also means that the need for physical storage space is reduced)
It provides accountability. There is no longer any doubt associated with policy sign-off. The date and time policy sign-off was requested, the sign-off status of each policy (for each employee) and the date and time they were signed-off, are all retained in the records.
It can help with compliance. Where organisations are required to demonstrate that employees have read and understood information relating to products, processes, and client requirements, sign-off can help to demonstrate compliance with legislation and commercial agreements binding the organisation.
The HR Policy feature is an Employee Self-Service add-on that records sign-off information within People Inc. employee records. It is installed within the ESS module and requires some minor configuration before it can be used. Employee-access to policy documents is achieved via their ESS log-in.
There is a cost associated with this add-on. The cost depends on the size of your organisation. Please contact your account manager for more details.
Examples of employment policies include:
Call P&A Software on 01908 265111 for some helpful advice or visit our Solutions page.