Half of staff ‘not aware of HR polices’, figures show

In a poll of 1,000 workers, only 53 per cent claimed to have knowledge of their employer’s HR guidelines and even fewer (43 per cent) were aware of their company’s structure.

Less than a quarter (23 per cent) of those canvassed understood their firm’s corporate social responsibility policy and only 27 per cent knew of their employer’s service guidelines, found the study by office provider Business Environment.

The firm suggested that inductions for the new recruits in organisations may be ineffective at communicating much of this pivotal company information in a memorable way.

“Given the importance of clear published codes, we were surprised by how low the awareness of HR guidelines was amongst UK office workers,” said David Saul, managing director of Business Environment.

“Information such as company structure and HR policy is often imparted as part of the induction process, so it is especially disheartening that the information is only retained by a minority of people.”

But the survey did find support for management programmes such as Investors in People (IiP), with 52 per cent of respondents indicating that it was important for employers to have such forms of accreditation.

“One of the best ways to transform business performance is through people,” added John Telfer, managing director of Inspiring Business Performance, which delivers IiP in the south of England.

“We believe that the requirements for IiP accreditation are hugely valuable in ensuring an organisation is fit to continuously develop, improve and be far more likely to achieve sustainable business success. For similar reasons, good HR, CSR and service policies are important, but only if employees have been effectively engaged.”