In Australia, Safe Work Australia and Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) authorities in each state or territory have responsibilities for enforcing WHS/OHS legislation (acts and regulations). As an employer or business owner, you must meet the WHS requirements set out in the acts and regulations in your state or territory. You may face penalties if you don’t meet them.
Acts give a general overview of how to make workplaces safe and healthy. They outline your legal responsibilities and duties as an employer and business owner.
Regulations set out the standards you need to meet for specific hazards and risks, such as, support equipment, or manual handling. They also set out the licenses you need if any for specific activities, the records you need to keep, and the reports you need to make.
Regulating agencies (also known as regulators) administer health and safety laws. They’re responsible for inspecting workplaces, providing advice and help, and hand out notices and penalties where necessary.
When courts are deciding whether workplace health and safety laws have been met, they may consider whether you’ve followed the approved codes of practice for your state or territory. You can get the approved codes of practice, and advice and support from the regulator in your state or territory by searching online for the right government department or asking at your local council.
Read more about workplace health and safety later to understand the benefits to your business and your rights and obligations as a direct employer or small business owner.
Policies and Procedures
A policy is a set of principles and related guidelines that a business establishes to define its long-term goals, they direct and limit the scope of its actions in pursuit of long-term goals, and are put in place to protect its interests.
A procedure is a set way of completing a task that consists of a sequence of steps that must be followed in order for the task to be completed properly.
The Importance of Policies and Procedures
You may wonder why you need policies and procedures in your businesses, they are to support and guide your needs and services. They are important because they define goals and give a way to action them, as well as help protect the business interest. Business procedures are important because they provide the means by which workers satisfy and fulfil your business policies.
In developing business policies and procedures you are setting clear expectations to obtain consistent results from your workers. The policies should give your workers a broad statement of your position on one or more aspects of the business.
Business policies can be divided into a couple of general categories those that establish rules, some advance internal goals and protect the business interests, and others protect rights. Other policies are created due to a legal requirements, compliance policies are policies created to satisfy legal or regulatory requirements.
Employee Policies define such things as terms and conditions of employment-conduct, dress code, digital device usage, equal opportunity and harassment, privacy expectations and discipline procedures etc.
Personnel policies can cover training and orientation, – employee benefits, insurance cover, superfund, pay schedules performance reviews etc.
You use procedures to explain the details of a policy, such as how employees should implement the policy through actions or decisions. You may provide some details for different situations in which a policy might apply.
If you’re going to use procedures to define a work process, it’s important to be specific. Describe the steps in a process using plain language and give examples when appropriate.
Write a list of operational areas that require written policies and procedures. Some are required by law, such as health and safety procedures. Consider adding illustrations, job aids, references and other information resources, even if you must create an addendum to the manual later on.
Don’t over work it all and micro manage every area, it is to overwhelming these procedures can be built on as you go or the need arises and can develop to form part of your staff training.
To start you want to include only what employees need to know and offer it when they need to know it.
- Ethic example , the long-standing ethics policy regarding honesty instituted at Levi Strauss and Co. as quoted by Inc.com reads: “Honesty: We will not say things that are false. We will never deliberately mislead. We will be as candid as possible, openly and freely sharing information, as appropriate to the relationship.”
Human resources hiring might read: “New hires shall be subject to a three month probationary period during which employment is ‘at-will.’”
Select vital matters initially to avoid overwhelmed on orientation day and prioritise the rest over the initial probation period.
Under the NSW Disability Services Act (1993) and to meet other legislative requirements, on this site are some documented policies and procedures that reflect the way my business works and how I self manage. To ensure that policy and practice are linked across my services and that employees are able to deliver quality and consistent services, it is important to me that all employees are familiar with the policies governing employment within my business and follow all approved procedures.