by Danny Silk
Earlier this month our staff gathered together, each one of us holding a freshly printed document covered in PEPY green. Though devoid of the pictures and visuals that normally accompany our materials, this Employee Manual still elicited a good deal of excitement. After all, every PEPY employee had participated in revising the policies inside.
The process began when PEPY managers each met with their team members to review our employee policies. Each group went through the old manual line-by-line and asked themselves: What do we like? What do we want to change? What is confusing and needs clarification? PEPY’s Human Resource Officer Seakngoy Try explains why this collaborative process was important: "All staff members practice the policy, so they should help create some of these policies, too."
After collecting feedback, the PEPY board and management team worked to incorporate these suggestions into company policy and to produce a new version of the manual that better represented the self-identified needs of staff members.
The Human Resources team conducted 2 training sessions in the first quarter to explain the changes that had been made. Today, PEPY staff members follow an Employee Manual that is largely the product of their own feedback and needs. The decision to involve everyone at PEPY in the process of improving and standardizing organizational policy speaks to our effort to remain true to our core values.