5 Reasons Why Your Policies And Procedures Are Useless

  • /
  • Blog
  • /
  • 5 Reasons Why Your Policies And Procedures Are Useless

Policies and procedures are essential for any business. In this post, we'll discuss five reasons why your policies and procedures are useless.

Reason 1: You (Management) Don't Enforce Them

You don't enforce your policies and procedures. This can lead to a lack of compliance, resulting in problems. For example, if you have a policy that states employees must wear uniforms, but no one enforces this policy, employees may choose not to wear uniforms because they know they won't get in trouble. If this happens frequently enough, it could lead to a lack of compliance with the policy overall. Additionally, not enforcing policies and procedures can also lead to safety issues. For example, if you have a policy that states employees must wear helmets when working on construction sites, but no one enforces this policy, workers may not wear helmets because they know they won't get in trouble. This could lead to accidents.

Reason 2: You (Management) Don't Follow Them Yourself?

Perhaps the most obvious reason your policies and procedures are useless is that you don't follow them yourself! If the procedures are not being followed, how can they be expected to achieve their intended purpose? Furthermore, if the procedures are not followed, mistakes will likely be made, leading to severe consequences. For these reasons, it is essential that all policy and procedure guidelines be followed by those responsible for implementing them.

Reason 3: You (Management) Fail to Communicate Them to Employees

If you want your policies and procedures to be effective, you need to make sure that employees know about them. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to do this. A study found that only less than half of employees knew about their organization's policies and procedures. If you want your policies and procedures to be effective, make sure that everyone knows about them!

Reason 4: They're Not Updated Frequently Enough

One of the biggest reasons policies and procedures are useless is that they're not updated often enough. If a policy or practice isn't updated, it can create confusion among employees and lead to misunderstandings. If a policy or procedure hasn't been updated in years, it's likely outdated and doesn't reflect current best practices. This means that employees may not be following the policy or procedure correctly, leading to problems. Additionally, it may not be appropriately enforced if a policy or practice is outdated. This could result in employees being given incorrect information or not being allowed to do their job correctly.

Reason 5: They're Not Audited

One of the most common reasons policies and procedures are useless is that they are not audited. This means that there is no way to know if they are being followed. If a policy or process is not audited, likely, it is not being followed.

 

Having policies and procedures is essential, but if you don't enforce them, follow them yourself, communicate them to employees, update them frequently, and audit them, they're useless.


Posted on April 4, 2022 by  Quality Gurus


Customers served! 1

Quality Management Course

FREE! Subscribe to get 52 weekly lessons. Every week you get an email that explains a quality concept, provides you with the study resources, test quizzes, tips and special discounts on our other e-learning courses.

Similar Posts:

December 10, 2021

Quality Mission and Policy

December 13, 2021

Types of Business Risks

December 7, 2021

Interdependence of Functional Areas

March 25, 2023

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

December 29, 2021

Effective Quality Audit Reports

December 22, 2021

What is Quality? – Different Perspectives

December 5, 2021

Resource Allocation and Strategy Deployment

December 3, 2021

Strategic Planning – VMOSA

32 Courses on SALE!