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CGF ARTICLES, OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

Disregard of company policies can cripple (2011-05-30)

When you first hear your colleagues discussing the need to draft or revisit a company policy, you may be inclined to think this is a menial task meant to keep someone busy. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, a company’s policies -- particularly its key policies -- are critical documents that generally describe the intentions of the company, and they set the manner and principles to which the company will govern its actions in achieving its goals.

That said, the company’s key policies are meant to provide the necessary guides to formulate the company’s strategy and plans, whilst ensuring that it complies with its statutory documents, the respective legislation and its long term objectives.  Clearly, as the success of a company often depends upon a good strategy, one must therefore not lose sight of the fact that both the strategy and the company’s policies, which have a symbiotic relationship, are an evolving process.  Most often when companies are first established, eager policy writers may produce a policy that sets for example the manner in which the company and its employees will manage its ethical behaviour. Yet somehow, notwithstanding the company’s initial great intentions, things can go horribly wrong for some of the following key reasons:

  • the policy is either not in place, updated or agreed to by the company’s main stakeholders (i.e.
    shareholders, directors, managers, employees, suppliers and customers); or
  • the policy is not aligned to the company’s vision, ethos or strategy; or
  • the policy is not visible, neither understood or practiced; or
  • the policy does not encompass legal and/or industry benchmarks or practices, and finally;
  • the policy is in conflict with changes in legislation  
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