Successful HR executives from Forbes Human Resources Council offer leadership and management insights.
Workplace policies vary vastly between industries. For an HR department, determining whether workplace policies should be non-negotiable or flexible depends on the company's needs. Flexible policies allow employees a lot of freedom but may lead to less control over events and resources. Nonnegotiable policies, on the other hand, could lead to an unhappy workplace, since many employees may feel pressured to conform.
Human resources departments need to determine which methodology is the better approach based on the company’s culture. To help, 13 members of Forbes Human Resources Council examine the crucial considerations facing an HR department when determining whether they'll opt for non-negotiable or flexible workplace policies.
Members share some key considerations for HR leaders who are deciding between flexible and non-negotiable workplace policies.
Photos courtesy of individual members.1. Organizational Culture
The culture of an organization is critical to consider when implementing any type of workplace policy. Legal obligations notwithstanding, policies that are counter to the company culture are guaranteed to be met with resistance. The application of company policies must also be considered to ensure fairness and potential discrimination claims, which in many organizations can be a challenge. - Dana Garaventa, GPHR, PHR,, Opus One Winery LLC
2. Putting Family First
One non-negotiable consideration from the employer side we have at Degreed is the following family-first principle: "Degreed is not your family. Your family is your family. And your family is more important than Degreed." - David Blake, The Future of Work Studios
3. What The Market Values
In a competitive job market, understand what the market values to create a competitive and comfortable work environment for employees. In addition to meeting employees' needs, understanding how your competitors and companies in your geographic location handle various policies and benefits is helpful. Culture surveys and evaluation publications (e.g. Best Places to Work) also provide guidance. - Jeff Buenrostro, Metric Theory
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4. How You Measure Productivity
When deciding whether to be flexible, you have to evaluate if you can measure productivity based on outcomes versus activity. If you are able to get your business or team to a point where you can evaluate them through tangible results and outcomes, that will open up multiple avenues to provide flexibility — be it in terms of working hours, location, number of days worked or work from home. - Amee Parekh, Uber Technologies
5. Impact On The Work Culture
Work policies need to reflect what outcomes you want in your organization. Some policies are put in place for the lowest common denominator and edge cases which, in the broad scheme, will have overall negative outcomes. Any policy that is put in place must be periodically evaluated to assess the impact it had and if it makes sense to change in case of adverse impact or unintended consequences. - Srikant Chellappa, Engagedly | Mentoring Complete
6. Effect On Recruiting And Retention
When deciding the flexibility of workplace policies, an important factor to consider is whether inflexibility will hinder talent attraction and employee retention. If competing companies offering similar opportunities and salaries have more flexible policies, stricter employers may be forced to update their policies in order to prevent top talent from migrating to their competitors. - John Feldmann, Insperity
7. Employee Feedback
Employee feedback is an essential consideration. In your employee surveys and exit interviews, add a question or two around company policies. Compile that feedback over time, look for trends, and revisit company policies once a year to ensure that you're staying on top of what matters most to your employees. - Jenna Hinrichsen, Advanced RPO
8. Competitors' Workplace Policies
Properly implemented policies can benefit employees and provide a competitive advantage to the business. As new competitors continue to shape markets and disrupt norms, organizations should be keenly aware of their competition within their industry, as well as geographic area. This will allow for increased retention without sacrificing business values and standards. - Erald Minga, Kellogg School of Management
9. Purpose Statement And Guiding Principles
Ask what culture you are trying to achieve. In order to answer that question, you need to have a clearly articulated and aligned purpose statement and guiding principles. Is your company employee-centric or does it put primary emphasis on profits? How do you retain customers, and do you let them know regularly that you appreciate them? The answers to these questions and others will guide you. - Sherrie Suski, Tricon American Homes
10. Mutual Expectations
The degree of flexibility on workplace policies should be dependent on the level of mutual trust for further changes given the dynamics of the economy, organizational situation and other circumstances. The degree of openness for change, such that the organization can adapt to new circumstances, should be considered when determining the level of flexibility in workplace policies. - William Ng, Bed Bath & Beyond
11. Business Scalability
Policies should be aligned with the business objectives. In this world of continual swift business pivots, policies must be able to scale according to business changes. We live in a world of disruptors and disruption. We need to own that change is constant and adaptability is key to success. - Patricia Sharkey, IMI People
12. Alignment To Mission, Vision
Be open to implementing any/all (reasonable) policy flex requests by your people so long as they align with the organization's mission, vision and culture. Run with them if they're realistic and meet this criterion, with a focus on the more challenging ones, to increase employee happiness and retention. - Bryan Passman, Hunter + Esquire
13. Holistic Thinking
Are you setting a precedent that you feel you can honor going forward? A rule may be creating one rule for the many, so the business can continue to operate effectively. Think holistically — every decision or change will have a knock-on impact so don’t forget the stakeholder impact assessment. Change is inevitable but be sure you understand the broader consequences. - Paul Phillips, Avanade
