HR file: Change for the better

Since the dawn of the internet business owners tasked with writing their company’s people-related policies have started with a web search. They find crib policies made available online by other helpful employers, conduct a crude ‘find and replace’ of the company name, and then implement them as their own. We have all done it.

Thankfully you cannot apply the same approach to developing a company’s culture, although that has not stopped people trying. I have witnessed many a discussion along the lines of ‘how can we be more like Google/Amazon/other company of choice?’ We are attracted to the ideas of these successful organisations; perhaps because we believe they have the answers. In turn their cultural strategies become something to aim for, perhaps even ‘best practice’ (if there is such a thing).