The standard will help organizations align human resources (HR) and employee relations (ER) policies with both business goals and employee needs.

Aug 07, 2025

ASTM International’s human resource management committee (E63) is developing a proposed standard (WK91419) that will provide professional, humane, and compelling solutions to the often-complex issues that conventional employee relations frameworks, policies and processes, often fail to address.

According to Sonia Johnson, chair of the E63’s employee relation standards creation group, organizations that adopt the approaches described in the proposed standard will derive an array of benefits, from optimal and measurable human resources and employee relations processes and outcomes to a more predictable, enhanced bottom line, to seamless employee retention.

The proposed standard will assist all employers in hiring, promoting, managing, and creating complementary policies that reflect a balanced approach to workplace issues, policy evolution and development, workplace dispute resolutions and investigations, and fast paced change management involving employees and employers.

“Employees are the executors of organizational policy. However, when policies are created, often, the confluence between employees and organizational needs is sacrificed for official-looking but obsolete and ineffective policies,” says Johnson, director of employee relations and human resources at The Society for Employee Relations Inc. “When we properly and consistently include employee needs and abilities in the policies and organizational function, it becomes a seamless and collaborative work environment providing high returns for employers and healthy and safe environments for people to thrive and grow in their roles.”

Johnson encourages interested parties to join in the standards creation process for WK91419. Please contact Johnson at info@thesfer.com if you are interested.

ASTM welcomes participation in the development of its standards. Become a member at JOIN ASTM.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Supported:

Recommended Articles

Proposed DEI Standards Would Support Workplace Integration and Assessments