Importance of Natal Policy in Organizations

‘My team has a married couple working together. They are amazing performers; however, they tend to take unplanned leaves together, and because of this, we cannot manage leaves in the team. Per company’s policy, we do not have a written document that doesn’t allow this.’

‘My teammates are weird; they can keep fighting all the time, turns out they are brothers! You should see the way they fight; it’s disturbing, actually.’

‘Our account head always interferes in everything, his son has just joined the team, so he literally interferes.’

‘My Team Manager’s wife is one of our Team Leaders; she scores the least in the scorecard but always manages to be the top-rated employee; this affects the team’s morale.’

‘That AM is making us feel uncomfortable; we all know that she is trying to bring in her husband to her team, but that doesn’t mean that she can question our performance; she is not related to our business said an anonymous employee. ‘we know that her director is also using his influence to bring her husband on board, what we don’t understand is that who the heck she is to question us, it’s just so ridiculous to work here.

Ironically, this is the story in many workplaces that contradicts the claim of ethics. The presence of a family member in the reporting hierarchy or in the team can lead to negative influence and partiality, making the leadership lose trust among the employees. While they may be good performers today, this could lead to potential attrition, lack of trust, and employees feeling disconnected and frustrated. These could affect the workplace environment, increase rumors, and decrease the employee’s satisfaction with the company.

Why is it better to bring in the policy?

Transparency

One of the challenges in successfully maintaining a mixed-generation workforce is to drive transparency. Although many companies include having family members in the leader’s hierarchy or as a part of his team in their code of conduct, it is not usually considered a violation. Companies do not take it as a practice to ensure that existing employees who get married are put in different verticals as, in many cases, business leaders do not get convinced because of the work being done. A standard transparent policy would, in turn, act as a valid legal document so that the employees can better plan their movement or shift of roles. This could also help the recruitment team take an unbiased approach.

A better image of the concern

For any concern with core values built on ethics and compliance, this policy can prove the execution of such values in real-time scenarios. This would prevent non-compliance with any approach that encourages favoritism, and the company’s credibility gets proven.

Order in hierarchy

This policy will chuck down non-conformists in the management. Abuse of power is an indirect cause of chaos within the organization. Having family members in the chain of command would increase the power hold of the manager, thereby creating a demigod image in front of the employees. Leaders with Demigod images are extremely result-oriented and try to run a self-led organization within the organization. In fact, having two assistant managers who are related to each other and reporting to different managers but rolling up to the same business leader is a violation that would lead to an authoritative environment. This leadership ground will treat employees as their workers and would not treat them as employees, increasing resistance, stagnating productivity, and increasing attrition.

Nepotism-free work zone

Promoting a nepotism-free work zone will give employees a free hand to work how they want. This would increase production, reduce absenteeism, and make retaining talent easier. Leaders would rather run a team by working with them on the ground than driving through authority. Leaders would start listening to people, take their feedback and run the show. Associates can voice their concerns without fearing their superiors.

Increased Employee citizenship

When employees realize that recruitment and performance are not influenced, their trust in the management increases. While the influence of managers in ratings is inevitable, there can be a significant increase in the rating scores being fair. Associates would feel content, get involved in the common style of work and culture, and connect with the organization’s value system.