In the world of HR, there are countless number of policies of which some are completely pointless, meaningless and still lurking around, whereas some others continue to be worse. Herein, we present critically culled top 5 HR policies that have the audacity to scream and say, “We hired you, but we don’t trust you farther enough to promote you either.”

These policies signal to employees that they are replaceable assets to the company, and the machinery is all built in the employers mind. If there are any such policies governing your workplace culture, it is time to reconsider and rethink if these policies are required.

In case, you as an employee notice any such company policy that indirectly means to say “you’re not good enough on job,” then you need to bring this to the attention of your senior manager such that it doesn’t impact the morale of team and co-workers. Some of the talent-repelling policies are:

• Paid time off in case of death of a fabricated story, claiming death of a close family member – dad or grandparents in order to pocket in two to three days of salary. Such policies are heinous and there is no reason to insult honest employees by bringing in funeral of near ones. Hire trustworthy members in the team, so that the morale of team always remains high.
• No reference despite working for decades with a company. This practice is particularly unfair when opted by reputed companies and senior management who provide no references, since they are afraid that a departmental manager may slime in an ex-employee during the reference call. It is not right to tell your employees, “no matter how hard or how long you work for us, when you quit there will be no reference provided.”

See: Top 7 Must-Haves in Company HR Policy

• If you have a bell curve performance review structure in place, then what you’re looking for is – teammates spending most of their energy vying for your approval, with only small number of spots allotted for excellent performers and little for above average workers. This kind of review system will divert your employee focus to compete with one another in the team to win the top spot. This system will not enthuse employees to collaborate as a team and support co-working. Small leadership companies have already abandoned bell curve performance review system back in the past.
• Stealing air miles. Companies pay for your official supplies, desktop systems and gleaming glass headquarters, however if they make you fly on frequent business trips to grab the extra miles advantage earned by making you stand in those lengthy queues, then obviously no one would like to work for masked thieves.
• Stack ranking. It is a process wherein managers are required to rank their team from top to bottom, establish hierarchy with the final output being accomplishing nothings, but making those weenie executives feel powerful owners. If your leaders still popularise and follow the slash and burn management style, popularised by Jack Welch, then it is time to revamp your strategy.
• If you believe that you’re hiring smart people for the job, then you would definitely not like to keep them wondering about their job security – if they still would be at the same official rank next week or perhaps would likely be fired. It is time hiring managers’ drop the medieval forced ranking system methodologies to grade performers. Start leading the team by example, the way great leaders does through inspiring and motivating workforce to excel performance goals.

Here’s hoping HR managers shall stay bereft of such stupid policies that continue to govern many companies in their processes and operations – thus impacting employee confidence and morale.

Source: forbes.com

Also read: Creating an Employee Handbook from Scratch