Standard Policy Documents List for Wilburs Widgets - Paper Example

Policy and procedure management does not necessarily favor large companies only but small corporations too. A basic yet sustainable structure is important for any organization with certain regulations and standards in place. Planning, distributing and acknowledging policies of an organization is a measure of safety from the unexpected while acting as a reference to employees. Through an effective policy, organizations can create a seamless image while keeping them in a good position in today's market. For this case, Wilbur's Widgets, a manufacturing company dealing with the production of widgets ought to have additional strong policy documents and management system to keep them compliant in the fast-paced business market as the IT market today is ever growing. Entry-level employees usually have enormous discretion about their performance at their respective workplaces as the organizations policies should be general enough to be applied to many yet different situations (Kirst-Arshman, 2007). The table below identifies the particular policies lacking for Wilburs Widgets alongside their justifications.

Policy Justification

Financial policy Through the financial policy, clear instructions on how financial undertakings will be performed in a consistent, accurate, and timely manner can be defined so as to safeguard the assets of Wilburs Widgets. There ought to be proper segregation of duties as the fiscal policy is being made. With the policy in place, issues such as budgeting will no longer be an issue in the organization. A budget is a plan for an organization and can provide direction to meet the organizations operating budget. A timeline that allows for plenty of time to draft and review with all staff on board should be issued to ensure appropriate budget preparation. The board should be setting the terms for modifying and amending the budget such as terms regarding individual funding restrictions such as funds from grants. Fall-back should also be targeted to the board. The organization should also consider putting in place specific regulations for other funding. Through this policy, Wilburs Widgets board members will allocate a loftier budget to the IT department to revamp their software and hardware.

Ethics The ethics policy should be meant to address openness of the employees regarding the organizations current operations and plans. Employees of Wilburs Widgets lack necessary knowledge in Information Security and hence, can be made to sign a non-disclosure agreement upon hiring to vow to safeguard the organizations information.

Employee conduct The employee conduct policy should be documented to establish the duties and responsibilities of each employee during hiring. Through the policy, employees can show appropriate behavior while in the workplace. For Wilburs Widgets, employee conduct can solve the challenge of inactive participation in patching software or operating system. Employee activeness can ensure sticking to the roles and lines of duty of the various employees in the firm. The policy can ensure that performance measures are determined by their respective expected processes.

Acceptable use policy The acceptable use policy should be put in place to issue a description on the plans for the organization to educate the workforce on the protection of the organizations assets, an explanation of how protection will be ensured and a procedure that evaluates the efficiency of the security policy so that necessary corrections can be made. A security policy can be covered by the acceptable use policy from where the security measures to be covered by this policy may include network security, server security, and application security. Wilburs Widgets, being an IT firm, ought to document in writing the plans to protect their physical information technology assets. The security policy should also be updated routinely to meet new technology and employee requirements.

Recruitment policy Documentation of the recruitment policy can ensure that only the best employees are offered a position in the organization. Employees are hired by the HR department to make significant contributions to an organization and so are entry-level employees for Wilburs Widgets. In their hiring policy, they should ensure the belief that taking in only the best persons for vacant positions at the organization can contribute to the general strategic success of the firm. Not only should they hire many employees but consider the effectiveness of individual employees since one qualified one should act better than may unqualified employees. Through the policy, sufficient manpower can be available to make sure employees in the IT sector are efficient despite their numbers.

Staff training and development Due to the rapid technological advancement of the IT industry, routine training ought to be part to upgrade and improve on-the-job skills. Through this policy, sufficient information can be instilled in employees regarding some important components of the organizations operations such as information security. Since employees hail from different fields of profession, training can ensure that each one of them understands the processes involved in ensuring information security (Takemura, Tanaka and Matsuura, 2011) for the organization. The policy ought to also include a request by the staff of training and disapproval of requests out of responsibility. Also, the IT sector is highly competitive and employees need to constantly replenish their skills for better performance. Permanent, part-time or full-time employees of an organization should be all covered by the policy.

References

Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2014). Human behavior in the macro social environment: an empowerment approach to understanding communities, organizations, and groups. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.

Takemura, T., Tanaka, H., & Matsuura, K. (2011). Analysis of Awareness Gap between Security Managers and Workers in an Organization with Regard to the Effectiveness of the Information Security Measures. Journal of Information Processing, 19, 253-262. doi:10.2197/ipsjjip.19.253