How to get staff interested in policies and procedures
It can be a very tricky task trying to get employees interested and engaged with policies and procedures, after all, even the phrase sounds boring! What if we told you there are simple tricks to make your staff more involved with them and get them to take notice once and for all? Read our top tips below and start getting your employees engaged.
Talk to your staff beforehand
Before you actually begin your update, ensure that all managers make an effort to speak to their employees face to face, this gives them a chance to conversationally explain to employees why the updates are being made and what it will mean to them.
People digest information better when it comes from human conversations rather than a written email.
Get their opinions and ideas
According to Peter Barron Stark Companies, there is a direct correlation between how involved employees are in the decision making in their department or team and their overall morale, motivation, and satisfaction with their jobs. Therefore to gain your staff's interest in your policies and procedures you must ask what they think would be useful to know or how you should present them.
An easy way to do this is to notify your team that you will be looking for suggestions (so they have time to think) then ask everyone at the beginning or end of their shift.
You could also have a box where staff could write suggestions so that they don't feel pressured to think on the spot. Get as much feedback from them as possible.
Present and talk it through
Don't just send your new document out. Hold a quick meeting where your managers can talk your staff through the new policy or procedure and explain exactly how it works and relates to them.
Explain different scenarios where it would come into play and how employees should approach it.
Let your staff ask questions and ask them if there is anything written which isn't clear enough. This way you can amend the document to be as easy to understand as possible.
Get your staff to present different scenarios back to you where they think the policy or procedure would come into action. This will reinforce the policy to them.
Provide microlearning
Websites like BuzzFeed use quizzes to engage their readers. Why not take inspiration from them and turn your policies or procedures into quick quizzes?
Give your staff quick questions which should only take a few minutes to complete every day as this will reinforce their understanding.
Use gamification methods to make it more fun and engaging. Virgin Media use Albert to top up their staff's knowledge, which gives their employees three daily questions to complete. They saw an increase of 7.4% in their knowledge rating from customers in just three months!
