Organisational Policy and Procedures
When the martians come: policy and procedure tips for cybersecurity
No matter what business you’re in, you’re likely to rely on information technology(IT). In social service, health and education agencies, we use IT for a multitude of functions – enrolments, intakes, planning etc. Essentially, we would be lost without it. But have you given sufficient thought to preventing and defending against cyber threats? If you…
Read MorePromise versus policy: the 3 things that make the difference.
With elections so close and the pressure on to vote, we’re hearing lots of ‘policies’. Or are they ‘promises’? And what’s the difference? It’s an important question with an election pending. It’s also important for the organisations we work for. We can all make promises, some of which we keep and some we don’t. When…
Read MorePolicy tips for your restorative justice work
If you’re a youth, iwi or other community agency working with youth/rangatahi you may be involved in restorative justice. Restorative justice is now pretty mainstream, particularly in youth justice. It has the potential to be transformative; replacing a punitive approach to offending with a constructive and restorative approach. But transformation doesn’t come easy. It requires…
Read MoreHow policies can help you collaborate
Whakawhanaungatanga – relationships and connection – is what it’s all about. In the social and health sectors, relationships and collaboration with other services, is key to addressing the range of issues clients OR whānau are dealing with and to making a sustainable difference to people’s lives. But it’s not always easy to collaborate. Even with…
Read More5 ways to increase the effectiveness of your complaints process
So you’ve got a complaints process but how effective is it? Is receiving no complaints the best you can hope for as a sign of effectiveness? Or is it the complaint outcome that matters most – ie that you were right or wrong? Here’s 5 things that we think are important to a good complaints…
Read More9 policy and procedure areas to cover off for COVID- 19
Good policies and procedures can help you steer the course – keep you on track with your compliance and guard against panicked decision making in a time of emergency. Are all policies and procedures equally important in a time of emergency? Not all. Here’s what we prioritise. Compliance Policies and procedures addressing compliance with regulations…
Read More5 takeaways from the Coroner’s and Ombudsman’s children’s reports
The Ombudsman and Coroner reports, released this month, identified inadequate treatment and care of children/tamariki by Crown agencies. The Coroner was reviewing the tragic death of a young two-year-old. The Ombudsman was reviewing policies and practices relating to the removal of newborn babies from their parents and whānau by Oranga Tamariki- the Ministry for Children.…
Read More3 tips for upping your game using policies & procedures
With so much going on the world, continuous improvement might seem like a tall ask. But don’t get dispirited. It’s not about doing more. If you monitor and check for quality, encourage and respond to feedback and enable client/consumer participation and have the policies and procedures to show for it, then you’ve got the basics…
Read More9 tips to help you prepare for Alert Level 1 & beyond
We’re heading towards Alert level 1 so let’s get our workplaces ready. We don’t know exactly what’s involved in Level 1 but we do know that we’re going to have to be careful and vigilant about public health. Always. COVID-19 won’t be our last pandemic. Pandemic readiness must be part of how we prepare for…
Read MoreHow parenting helps you manage workplace health and safety
Parenting is “risky” business. So is managing health and safety in the workplace. Apply what you know as a parent and you’ll be on course to health and safety in the workplace. Similarities Risk-management is ordinary We want our kids to be happy and thrive so we let them take chances, make mistakes. We let…
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