We wish all of our clients who employ people know what you will know in three minutes after reading this article. It could let them to avoid majority of their employment law related problems. How? Simply, be keeping things in (legal) order.
We respect your time, therefore we invite you to read this article to know how to manage and comply with requirements imposed by UK’s law and also, what we recommend you to do.
Believe us, we helped hundreds of employers, small and medium sized companies, and we can tell you from our experience that time and money spent on compliance will save your expenses in the future. Even if you are right in the process, you may have to pay thousands of pounds to defend your position at Employment Tribunal.
So what we suggest you to do?
The truth is, there are only few information that have to be given to your employees in writing (so called written statement of terms of employment), some information can be just included in the handbook or other reasonably accessible document.
The fact that there is no legal requirement to adopt the staff handbook does not mean that having one is a luxury you could easily live without. Having such document accessible in the workplace is a good practice because it clearly presents what is expected from your employees, what are the rules of the behavior and what are the responsibilities and rights of your staff regulating relations with you as an employer and also among them .
The handbook can protect you and your business against any conflicts and disputes in employment related issues by setting the clear procedure on how to deal with the matter under certain circumstances. It will be also an evidence (for instance, at court) that you are a reasonable employer who pursue to adhere to legal requirements and general principles.
It is required by law that you have disciplinary procedure, grievance procedure, information about pensions provided, unless respective provisions are included in contract of employment, and health and safety policy, if you employ five or more employees.
The disciplinary procedure is a formal way for employer to deal with employee’s unacceptable behavior or performance and the grievance procedure is a way that the employer can solve an issue with employee’s problems at work if he or she raised them.
Both the procedures are regulated by ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) giving some guidance on how it should work. You need to know that in case of a court dispute, you can be obliged to pay more compensation to your employee just because you unreasonably failed to adhere to ACAS ‘rules. In such case the Employment Tribunal has the power to increase the compensation up to 25%!
It is not mandatory, but we would strongly recommend that the sickness absence policy is also in your handbook, unless detailed in a contract of employment. It may be useful to set some requirements on reporting sickness absence, evidence of incapacity or explaining the sick pay. There can be also an equal opportunities policy on how the process of recruitment and selection works, to show that you are determined to avoid discrimination. Also, anti-harassment and bullying policy advising on how to act whenever employee come across the unacceptable behavior. Last but not least, privacy policy with accordance to requirements of GDPR you have probably already heard about.
The above are only examples of the policies you may or should adopt, depending on the nature of your business (you will require slightly different protection if you are a food seller and different if you are a construction company).
Usually after your first conversation with one of our employment law specialists, you will be advised on standard documents and procedures that should be implemented at your business.
What we can offer you now?
No matter if you are a small, medium or large company, if you employ at least one person, you will have to comply with UK’s employment law regulations. We are here to help you because law is what we do best, so you can focus on things important to you.
After consultations with our clients, internal experts and partners, we have created a new product, IMD Employer Protect. The service includes:
As a part of our service we will prepare standard contracts of employment for your staff and handbook with all the most relevant policies. Of course, we will be for you whenever you require to amend or expand the documents.
If you have any questions regarding the employment matters or our products, please contact us on 0330 107 0107 or simply send us an email at: business@imd.co.uk .
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law and the services offered may have changed since this article was published.
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