1.
COMPANY
POLICIES
A STRATEGIC TOOL FOR
EFFECTIVENESS.
by
ODIMAYOMI OLUWAFEMI

2.
Outline
• What are policies
• Characteristics of policies
• Purpose of policies
• Abuse of policies
• The ties: the vision, mission, strategy and corporate
culture.
• Mutual experience

3.
What are policies?
Business policies are deliberate verbal, written, or implied
system of principles that guide decision making in an
organization. E.g directions, laws, principles, rules or
regulations.
They are set of rules and conduct within an organization,
outlining the responsibilities of both employees and
employers.

4.
• For the provision of structure- they arrange relationship between
the parts or elements of the business,
• For stating rights and duties of every body in the organization
• For the implementation of strategies.
• To prevent deviation from planned course of action, to maintain
consistency.
• To maintain compliance/coordination of actions
• To build a culture.-To communicate values and expectations of
how things are done in the organization.
Purpose of Policies

5.
Characteristics of policies
• It should be related to objectives
• Policies statement should be definite, positive, clear and understandable
to everyone in the organization.
• They should be flexible (Periodically reviewable), but should possess a
high degree of permanency.
• There should be as many policies as necessary to cover conditions
prevailing in the organization, but not too many as to become confusing or
meaningless.
• Policies should be based on organizational facts and sound judgement,
not merely on personal reflections.
• Policies should recognize economic principles, be in conformity with
government laws and be compatible with the public interest.
• Just, fair and equitable

6.
Imagine a football game without it’s rules…

7.
Playing by the rules is the
first step towards winning!

8.
Abuse of policies
The improper use of policies for Unjust or
corrupt practices
And it is a question of cause and effect

9.
Types of abuse
• Physical: Intentional acts that are obviously against
rules and regulations.
• Emotional or Psychological : a form of abuse,
characterized by a person subjecting, or exposing,
another person to behaviour that may result in disloyalty
to the company’s rules and regulations.
• Sexual: any non-consenting sexual act or behaviour.

10.
Effects of policies abuse

11.
• Unhappy Employees
• Dissatisfied Customers
• Poor Employee Relations
• High Employee Turnover
• Bad Corporate reputation
• Ineffective management
• Affect bottom line negatively.
Effects cont.

12.
The ties.
• Vision lays out a destination; destination guides strategy;
and strategy chooses action. And action determine the
success.
• Vision addresses long term goals, mission brings it
closer and corporate culture is the thread linking them
all.
• Our vision statement sounds nice but it is not useful if it
cannot direct actions
• Corporate culture stems from corporate policies.

13.
What is corporate culture?
• A collective character of an organization.
• It is essentially the sum total of the attitudes, behaviours,
beliefs and traditions of an organization.
• It encompasses the collective goals of a company and
the standards of expected behaviour in achieving those
goals.

14.
More on culture…
Senior management typically
develops brand strategy while
the actual brand experience is
most often delivered by the
least-informed and lowest paid
service associate.
Internal brand is the set of
strategy process that align and
empower employees to deliver
brand promise to the customer
in a consistent manner
Culture is more than just an
internal phenomenon, a
company’s culture is often
felt outside of its own four
walls.
It is an important part of the
company’s brand. If culture
is not aligned with the brand,
or the brand does not
naturally arise from the
culture.
The company can develop a
credibility problem by
promising one thing to the
market but deliver
something else.
When your people don’t know
what the priorities are, politics
and infighting aren’t too far
away. And that is exactly what
happened at yahoo.

15.
Corporate culture models
Strong Corporate
Culture
Weak Corporate
Culture
Employees have a sense of
empowerment and increased
productivity.
Employees feel lost and
decrease loyalty
Employees have an
understanding of company
goals, regulations and
philosophy.
Employees just tag along
without a proper
understanding of what is
required of them.
Employees feel respected. Employees feel unmotivated

16.
Relationship between corporate
culture and performance
A positive culture boosts performance but performance alone
doesn’t create a positive culture.
Company’s failure should not be measured only by the level of
liquidity or profitability but the imbalance between corporate
culture and corporate performance

17.
Case study of Skye Bank
• Emefiele said the apex bank had appointed a new board
and management for the bank following the resignation
of the Chairman, Chief Tunde Ayeni, and MD/CEO, Mr.
Timothy Oguntayo.
• He said the bank’s outgoing board and management had
consistently failed to turn the fortunes of the bank around
despite consistent warnings from the CBN.
• The CBN boss urged shareholders and customers of the
bank to remain calm, stressing that the bank was not in
distress.

18.
The Experience
Our policies (are they viable?)
General personnel policies
 General obligations
 grades of staff
Employments and cessation of work
 Nature of employment
 Types of appointment
 Offer/acceptance of appointment
 Staff reporting for duty
 Disengagement resignation/termination of appointment
 Retirement/pension
 certification of service
General conduct, code of ethics and safety
 Work attendance
 Hours of work
 Punctuality
 On-call allowance
 Overtime
 Time off for extra work

19.
Our policies
 Dress code
 Security checks and rules
 Staff identity (I.D) Cards
 Corporate safety policy
 Communication policy
 Local movement
 Movement outside location
Discipline and grievances
 Discipline
 Ground for disciplinary action
Disciplinary process
 Initial report
 Investigation
 Decision of disciplinary action
 Petition
Disciplinary measures
 Verbal warning
 Written warning
 No pay for no work
 Suspension from duty on half pay
 Suspension without pay
 Termination
 Grievance procedure

20.
Our policies
Remuneration and benefits
 Salaries
 Salary increment/performance appraisal/promotion
 Housing policy-rent subsidy/allowance/furniture grant
 Recreational facilities
 Responsibility/relief allowance
 company’s quarters and housing
Duty tour
 Travel within Nigeria
 Travel outside Nigeria
 Duty/training assignment
 Class of air travel
 Transfer:
 permanent transfer
 Transfer benefits
 Temporary transfer
 Request for transfer
Leave
 Annual
 Compassionate/casual/exam
 Leave allowance
 Maternity leave
 Sick leave

21.
Our policies
Loans, Advances and Grants
 Salary advance
 Rent advance
 Compassionate loan
 Vehicles/refurbishing loans
 Furniture allowance
Benefits & Incentives
 Mass transportation
 Medical
Bonuses
 Annual productivity
 Drivers’ No-accident
Group life insurance policy
 Group personal accident
 Pension fund administrator/National pension Act 2004
 Cooperative thrift & credit society
 Canteen services
Membership of professional bodies
 Membership of social clubs
 Long service merit award
Death benefits
Transport allowance
Utility allowance

22.
Our policies
• Training and manpower development
• Types of training
• Company-sponsored training programs
• Educational assistance
Local courses
Membership of professional bodies.
Mutual work place culture
 Fellowship
 Birthday celebration
 Salutation and greetings
 Thanksgiving

23.
World class culture
• Is our business strategy and corporate governance world
class?
• Is our structure, power and authority world class? (information
flow)
• Is the business process world class? (networks, workflow and
team members)
• Is the reward system world class? (compensation & reward)
• Is the Human resource management world? (hiring, staff
management, feed back)

24.
• Our culture/beliefs and our performance, can we
be better?

25.
The link between policies, vision,
mission and corporate strategy
• Two quick facts
o Strategies depend on people to be successful.
o Policies shape and guide the behavior of the people, who carry out
the strategy which eventually brings about success.

26.
How “SMART” are our
Corporate Policies?
Do our Policies satisfy the
“SMART” test?

27.
The SMART Era
• The “Smart” Evolution – smart phones, smart
TVs, smart cars… Smart goals!
• The “Smart” concept: innovative, easier, more
engaging…
• “Smart Policies”? Let’s find out…

28.
The SMART we know…

29.
Meet the new SMART!
S – Strategic
M – Meaningful: Communicate the Vision accurately
A – Applicable: Workable (calculated efforts)
R – Results-Oriented… NOT activity based
T – Take stock: Evaluate status in Iine with realization of
the Vision.

30.
people
Do individuals/units really understand the game
plan?
STRATEGY RESULTSTACTICS
Processes

31.
Strategy V. Tactics
The Strategy Equations
1. Great strategy + Poor tactics = poor results
2. Poor strategy + Great tactics = poor results
3. Great strategy + Great tactics = Great results!

32.
So, what are your
thoughts?