Lack of adherence to policy and procedures can cause embarrassing situations that damage your own professional reputation and, even worse, cause harm and unnecessary angst for clients.
Working within organisational policy and procedures is not as simple as reading policy and procedures manuals. policy is not just the written word. A critical aspect of policy is the way in which it is interpreted by various people and the way it is implemented (‘the way things are done around here’). For example, the organisation may have a written policy that staff meetings occur every second Wednesday, however, what you notice is that all staff members go to the staff room and an informal catch-up about recent events and team tasks occurs over lunch a couple of times a week, instead of at a formal meeting. If you were to go out for lunch every day you would miss this valuable networking time.
To ensure that you are always working within policy and procedures, you need to network closely with colleagues and management, attend staff and management committee meetings where possible, informally network with other workers, read emails and memos, and take opportunities to be involved in policy development.
Learning Topic 2 Follow the organisation’s policies and practices
This topic should provide you with the ability to identify your responsibilities as a community services worker and work within the boundaries and limitations of your role. You will learn to:
accept responsibility for your own actions;
seek agreement with the client, where possible, prior to providing services;
work within organisational policies, protocols and procedures;
contribute to the review and development of policies and protocols; and
work within position specifications and role responsibilities and seek clarification when you are unsure of responsibilities or instructions.
Section 2.4 Working within agency policies and procedures
The following activity explores the importance of working within organisational policy and procedures.
Activity 2.4
Read the following case study and answer the questions.
While working alone at night in a women’s refuge Tammy, a female worker, had an altercation with a male visitor. The worker had only recently started the job and hadn’t had a chance to learn about the organisation’s policies and procedures. He attempted to see his partner who he had discovered was staying at the refuge. Tammy managed to keep him from entering the premises and made a mental note of the incident and would mention it to her supervisor when she is next in.
The next day Tammy found that the staff members on the next shift were not aware of the incident and the same man had forced his way in, removing his partner from the refuge.
1. In what way could Tammy’s knowledge of and following of policy and procedure have prevented this unfortunate incident?
2.4.1 Knowledge and applications of organisational policy and procedures relating to conflict
There will be times (hopefully not often) when you are unsure about what is expected of you in the workplace. Sometimes organisations are not well resourced in terms of staff, and basic orientation for new workers is hurried and incomplete (called ‘being thrown in at the deep end’). You may have been given unclear instructions for a task from your supervisor and you’re not sure how to go about it or whether it is your responsibility anyway. Sometimes colleagues might also ask you to do something that may not be your responsibility.
When we communicate with others it is inevitable that conflict occurs sometimes. Conflict normally occurs when there is a difference in opinions, beliefs, values, attitudes and interests between people. People respond to conflict in different ways but as care workers we need to be able to deal with conflict situations. We need to have the skill to negotiate a ‘win-win’ situation for our clients.
What to do?
This kind of confusion leads to conflict if it is not resolved. It’s important that you seek clarification with your manager or supervisor to clearly define what is expected of you. Always use your job or position description (discussed earlier) as a point of reference. By clarifying confusion promptly, you may gain a better understanding of what your responsibilities are and how they relate to your colleagues’ responsibilities.
2.4.2 Contributing to the development and review of policies and procedures
Policies and procedures should be regularly reviewed in order to ensure they reflect current best practice and legal requirements.
Policies should be reviewed:
when there is a change within the legal requirements, eg. a new Act of Parliament (legislation) or regulations;
regularly as part of your service’s annual review and planning time;
for accreditation purposes;
as new information on best practice emerges;
when you notice that a policy or procedure contradicts a legal or ethical direction, for example, staff are increasingly working alone in a domestic violence service, despite OHS legislation contradicting this practice; and
when incidents are occurring that indicate the policy is not working, eg. an increasing number of stress-related leave applications being placed by staff despite a stress reduction policy.
Your contribution
As previously stated, you are required to be familiar with the policies and procedures of your employer’s organisation and to act in accordance with these.
Most workplaces have committees made up of management representatives and workers to regularly review the policies and procedures of the service.
By being aware of your own professional code of ethics, your job description and your workplace requirements, you are in a good position to be aware of any policies or procedures that could be improved or need replacing. You may be able to be a part of a committee itself or you may ask to contribute to such development within your workplace. There may also be legislative requirements on which you and other workers need to acquire knowledge.
As you update and improve your expertise, you are gaining new knowledge and skills on good practice based on current service methods. This may lead you to make suggestions to your team or the person in charge about new or modified policies, so that the service is up to date with current issues.
For example, you may learn from reading that there is a better way to provide some aspect of service than your service is presently offering. You may want to bring this (or some other matter) to the attention of the other staff or even the person in charge. You may make a suggestion which is accepted and this could lead to a change of policy in this matter. This could result possibly in a change for the betterment of clients.
How to contribute
How you contribute is very important. No service wants to hear something that is presented as a criticism.
If you have a suggestion about a changed or new policy idea, you should:
discuss it first with your supervisor; and
ask if it could be discussed at a team meeting to see if others hold similar views or have further knowledge on the topic.
If the new information is seen as important to act on, make sure there is a ‘who’ and a ‘when’ next to it. That means someone is responsible for following it through and developing the policy or protocol, and that there is some time when they need to report back on it.
You can contribute by:
identifying new knowledge;
being familiar with current policies and protocols;
being willing to make suggestions and contribute to discussions; and
volunteering to follow things up if others are unable to.
2.4.2 Contributing to the development and review of policies and procedures