How To: Create new Employment Equity policies and procedures

As per Section 15 of the Employment Equity Act 1998, the organisation must have a total of 19 employment equity policies and accompanying procedures in place with procedures ensuring that the transformation is always fair, all policies must include a dispute and grievance procedure. It is also important to include reasons why the policy was created, which procedure and practise its connected too, and which employment barriers were identified and how it will be addressed.

It’s important that the employment equity and affirmative action policies and procedures be approved by the employment equity committee as well as the workers’ forum and Union, as this document will be requested by the Department of Labour during an inspection. When drafting the policy and procedures it is wise to invite input from all parties, especially employees that will be implementing the policy and procedure.

This valuable input will ensure that the policy and procedure created will not impede on the daily operation of the organisation and will become standard practice in future. Policies and procedures created at boardroom level always create long-term problems in the organisation due to implementation constraints. The easiest and most efficient way of creating policies and procedures within the organisation is to develop the policies and procedures at the departmental level.

By requesting managers, supervisors and head of departments to create a policy and procedure framework for the department will increase efficiency in operations. It will also allow management of the department to get a bird’s eye view of the current method of operating, allowing them to make changes to increase efficiency and productivity without compromising or creating additional barriers to employment.

The policy framework can be used to create a new policy and procedure by HR or labour specialists that have in-depth knowledge of the Labour, Employment and Health and Safety Acts. It’s important to note that the policy must be compliant with the different Acts, as the policy and the procedure will be used by the employees to guide their actions in the organisation.

Once the newly created policy and procedure have been completed the document is submitted to all staff members within their department for final approval, once approved the new policy and procedure can be submitted to the Executives for signing. The employment equity committee can then include this policy and procedure into the employment equity and general human resources policies and procedures for the organisation.

The following policies are required by the Department of labour for designated employers:

• Dispute Resolution policy and procedure

• Grievance policy and procedure

• The recruitment of new employees policy and procedure.

• Advertising of positions for new employees policy and procedure.

• The selection criteria for new employees policy and procedure.

• The appointment of new employees policy and procedure.

• Job classification and grading policy and procedure

• Remuneration and benefits policy and procedure.

• Remuneration discrepancy policy and procedure.

• The terms and conditions of employment policy and procedure

• The work environment and use of facilities policy and procedure

• Training and development of employees policy and procedure

• Performance evaluations policy and procedure

• Succession and experience planning policy and procedure

• Disciplinary codes and measures policy and procedure

• Retention of designated groups of employees policy and procedure

• The corporate culture policy and procedure

• Reasonable accommodation of employees policy and procedure

• HIV AIDS prevention and wellness programs of the organisation policy and procedure

• Senior managers to manage employment equity implementation policy and procedure

• Employment equity transformation budget allocation policy and procedure

• Time availability for the Employment equity consultative committee to conduct employment equity tasks policy and procedure.

It is extremely important that the policies and procedural documents comply with the labour relations Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Health and Safety Act and the Skills Development Act. It is advisable to utilise the services of a Labour specialist to verify compliance before implementing the policies in the organisation.

It’s important that all employees know and understand each policy created in order to comply with the employment equity act. It’s also wise to allocate specific time periods to each policy for revision as well as how long the policy will remain active.