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Why do you need HR Policies and procedures?
HR policies give practical advice and guidance on a range of employment issues. HR procedures support and supplement HR policies by giving step-by-step details of specific arrangements that apply.
Good HR policies can help limit the scope of employment tribunal claims by providing guidance which reflects current law.
Policies and procedures provide a framework to help your managers deal with employment issues and play an important role in supporting cultures of trust, fairness and inclusion by outlining the responsibilities of both employer and employee in the employment relationship.
HR policies can also improve the speed of decision-making by ensuring that clear guidance is readily available to cover a range of issues as they arise.
Some HR policies and procedures are specifically required to comply with the law e.g a written health and safety policy is required for any organisation with five or more employees and legislative provisions require a formal disciplinary and grievance procedure.
Even where a policy or procedure isn't required by law, it is useful to have a policy in place to provide clear guidance for managers and help employees understand the company's stance on a particular issue.
Policies make life easier for line managers to manage fairly and objectively. They provide a framework to guide objectivity in decision making.
However there is little point in having well-drafted and legally compliant policies and procedures if you simply ignore them every time you have an HR issue. An Employment Tribunal will take an extremely dim view of this.
How should policies be drafted?
Policies should:
- be written in plain English and avoid jargon
- indicate who is responsible for updating and reviewing them
- indicate who to contact in case of any query
- be communicated to all employees
- be reviewed and updated
What HR policies do we need?
A staff handbook might typically cover a wide range of policies. Some of these will be particular to your company they might include the following:
- Equal Opportunities Policy
- Anti-harassment & bullying policy
- Disciplinary Rules
- Disciplinary Procedure
- Grievance Procedure
- Expenses Policy
- Dress Code
- Data Protection Policy
- Health & Safety Policy
- Substance Misuse Policy
- Stress/ well-being policy
- Anti-corruption and bribery policy
- Sickness absence policy
- Capability Procedure
- Whistle-blowing policy
- Maternity policy
- Paternity policy
- Adoption policy
- Shared Parental leave policy
- Time off for dependants
- Bereavement Leave Policy
- Compassionate Leave Policy
- Flexible working policy
- Remote/home working policy
- Time off for training policy
- Time off for public duties
- Adverse weather & travel disruption policy
- Career break policy
- Information and Communications Systems Policy
- Social Media Policy
- Redundancy Policy
- Retirement Policy
Well-drafted and clear policies leave an employer less open to discrimination claims if they are fairly applied.
For this reason it is essential to review policies regularly to ensure compliance.
Our team can provide you with policies to suit your organisation - contact us on 01827 317070 or employment@pickerings-solicitors.com
Also check out our great value package PEP - Pickerings Employer Plus, This is a way to get all the employment law advice, policies, procedures and documents that you need for a fixed monthly fee.
