We recently updated our staff policies here at Balanced Good. Our team grew from one to two to eight in a few short years and we knew that part of the growth meant making a more robust set of policies to guide our work. We learned a lot from this process and wanted to share that learning with you in case its helpful for your organization or your team.
Before we started, we narrowed down the principles that would guide our decision making during this process and first and foremost we wanted to ensure the policies we developed were advancing equity in the workplace.
Here’s the rundown of the values we used for this work:
- Naming and confronting bias at work: We were intentional about naming the ways that bias shows up at work which allowed us to develop policies that confront and disrupt that bias. For example, an unlimited sick day policy feels progressive on paper. But in reality, there is a point in which someone is taking too much time off and their work may be suffering or their team may be worried. If that check in point is not clear (for example, after 10 days) it now becomes up to the manager to decide how much time off is “too much” time off for that staff person to be taking. And those decisions are informed by bias – there are dynamics of racism, sexism, ageism, ableism and discrimination against parents and caregivers that shape managers decisions at work. By instead opting for a more clear policy, we can ensure all staff have access to a generous amount of leave.
- Not using the status quo as our only benchmark: We’ve been in many conversations about the “sector norm”– folks are often concerned if their compensation structure or leave policies align with the rest of the sector. But that benchmark feels inadequate when working in a sector that often undervalues and underpays their teams. At Balanced Good we are striving to be a progressive employer whose policies reflect the changes we want to see enacted in the broader non-profit sector. When making policy decisions we didn’t only ask, what is the norm, but rather, “what should be the norm?”
- Trusting our team: We respect people’s personal lives and recognize that workers do not need to always share details with their employer. We wanted to build policies that did not feel like we were policing our staff and instead trust our staff to tell us what they need. This meant adopting a generous pool of personal days that could be used for a variety of reasons, and not requiring staff to disclose their reason. Saying “tomorrow I need to use a personal day” is enough.
- Managing risk: We regularly asked ourselves if we were building a policy that we could sustain in the long-term, meets all legislative requirements and supports the long-term health of Balanced Good.
- Seeking meaningful input and expertise: There were two key moments of input on our policy development process. One was to seek the support of the HR firm that could provide legal expertise around legislative requirements for our team and the second was to present the full set of draft proposals to our entire staff team and offer multiple ways to seek their feedback.
Staff were able to review the draft handbook in advance, share feedback during an all-team meeting and through an anonymous survey. This meaningful feedback from the team resulted in some of our favourite parts of the handbook and ensured that we were building something that reflects our team culture and values.
Through our process we’ve landed on a set of staff policies that we are really proud of. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Bank of personal days: Rather than providing a separate set of days for personal illness, family responsibility leave, menstrual & menopause leave, gender affirming care leave, and mental health days, we have provided all staff access to two weeks worth of paid personal days that they can use at their discretion and they do not have to disclose the reason.
- Bereavement leave policy that is inclusive: Our bereavement leave policy adopts an expansive and inclusive definition of family, we provide paid time off for staff who need it for the death of a loved one. We do not ask for proof of death and we do not limit who is included in the definition of “loved one.” There are all kinds of family structures and close bonds that our staff team are a part of, and they can determine who and how they need to grieve when they experience a loss.
- Advocacy & Learning Days: As part of living out our values for progressive sector change, we have given all staff four paid days a year to use for advocacy and learning. Advocacy days can be used to engage in community organizing work that advances change in our sector and is related to our mission/vision/values.
- Public holiday swap: Staff are invited to swap a statutory public holiday for any other day of cultural significance for them.
- Remove the wait time to enroll in benefits: To ensure all staff have access to their benefits right away, including staff who have higher medicine costs or dependents, we waive the standard three month waiting period as part of our benefits enrolment.
- Parental leave top-up: We wouldn’t be Balanced Good without a progressive parental leave policy, we’ve built out a plan that includes a top-up for any staff going on parental leave.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on these policies! Feel free to get in touch as [email protected]
