promotion, and redundancies (Beach & Dale 1985). Emphasis on the forming of poli-
cies is common in large and medium size organisations in developed countries and less
if at all present in organisations in poor countries. The formulation of policies covering
almost all the aspects of human resource management functions or just a selection of a
few areas like training and development depends on a number of factors, including lack
of top management’s appreciation of the need for policies and resource constraints such
as technical expertise and finance.
The formulation of human resource policies requires thorough preparation and com-
mitment to provide the necessary impetus for the preparation of the policy document, its
implementation and continuous review (Cherrington 1995). In fact, it is better to have
no policy at all than having one that is not implementable as it will be a potential source
of conflict between the management and staff and could seriously hinder productivity.
Some organisations may have the expertise and financial resources required but may not
have the time to go through the task of preparing human resource policies. As a result,
consultants are engaged to do the job alone or in collaboration with some technical staff
from within the organisation, particularly the human resource specialist. Regardless of
whether the policy is formulated by the organisation or consultancy firm, some basic
procedures and processes need to be followed. Figure 3.1 summarises the salient fea-
tures.
Figure 3.1 Formulation and implementation of human resource policy
Source: Cherrington (1995).
Identifying the need
The process of identifying the need for a particular HRP should emanate from the re-
view of the organisational vision, mission, goals, strategies, objectives and activities on
the one hand, and human resource strategies (if available) on the other. These sources
may explicitly or implicitly provide the necessary starting point for building arguments
for a particular HRP. For example, if one of the statements observed says that ‘the or-
ganisation strives to excel in error free products’, it means that there should be particu-
lar policy guidelines for human resource recruitment, rewards, retention and develop-
ment in order to ensure the availability of staff of the quality and the size capable of
producing error free products.
Identify needDevelop strategiesPrepare policy documentImplementMonitor and evaluate