Dear chrm'ites,

Make only the minimum number of rules and policies needed to protect your organization legally and create order in the work place.

Publish the rules and policies and educate all employees.

With the involvement of many employees, identify organizational values and write value statements and a professional code of conduct.

Develop guidelines for supervisors and educate them about the fair and consistent application of the few rules and policies.

Address individual dysfunctional behaviors on a “need-to” basis with counseling, progressive discipline, and performance improvement plans.

Clearly communicate work place expectations and guidelines for professional behavior.

Helpful Hints

Solicit employee feedback on potential policies, areas in which policies are needed, and so on. (Do not, as one company did recently, announce a new attendance policy by posting it on a bulletin board.)

If you decide to adhere to and hold employees accountable for an existing policy, don’t ambush your company members. If you have not enforced the policy in the past, meet with employees and explain the policy, the intent of the policy, why the policy is necessary, and why it was not enforced in the past. Then, tell everyone that following the meeting, everyone is accountable for adherence to the policy.

You’ll be surprised how much support for legitimate policies and rules you receive from the people in your organization. People like a well-organized work place in which expectations are clear. People thrive in a work place in which all employees live by the same rules. If you create an environment that is viewed as fair and consistent, you give people little to push against. You open up a space in which people are focused on contribution and productive activities rather than gossip, unrest, and unhappiness. Which workplace would you choose?

Any more points that you can add to this list ?