Every business in Australia – no matter which industry it operates in – should have well-documented and comprehensive workplace policies and procedures.

Having well-developed policies and procedures can provide the following benefits to your workplace:

1. They help employees know what is expected of them with respect to standards of behaviour and performance.
2. They set rules and guidelines for decision-making in routine situations so that employees and managers do not need to continually ask senior managers what to do.
3. They help you to adopt a consistent and clear response across the company to continually refer to situations involving employee interaction.
4. They allow you to demonstrate good faith that employees will be treated fairly and equally.
5. They allow you to have an accepted method of dealing with complaints and misunderstandings in place to help avoid favouritism.
6. They set a framework for delegation of decision-making.
7. They give you a means of communicating information to new employees.
8. They offer you protection from breaches of employment legislation, such as equal opportunity laws

But remember: having workplace policies and procedures in place is only valuable if you make sure they are properly implemented and monitored.