Employment policies play an integral role in ensuring companies remain complaint with legal requirements, reducing the risk of legal implications. They act as guidelines for businesses to set out expectations and rules to employees in the workplace. The policies can provide clear information on a range of issues, from anti-discrimination measures to health and safety protocols.
Why Are Employment Policies Needed?
Implementing employment policies can help to create an efficient, productive workplace. They can provide clarity across expectations and procedures, so everyone in the organisation is on the same track. Management within a company can be difficult to navigate, but policies allow employers to guide employees on behavioural and operational aspects.
Certain employee policies, such HR policies, play a key role in avoiding workplace implications and provide clear strategies to deal with them. Showcasing the business’ view on problematic issues such as harassment, discrimination, or dismissals and how these can be resolved can help to defend you against future legal cases or tribunals. These policies can also demonstrate dedication to fair, non-discriminative actions which can promote a positive organisational culture.
Mandatory Employment Policies
All companies or organisations with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy in place to comply with statutory duties. Any procedures related to formal disciplinaries or grievances must meet the minimum statutory requirements.
Aside from the above, there is not any legal requirement to provide any further workplace policies or procedures, such as an equality and diversity policy. However, even though these might not be legally required, it’s recommended to have certain polices in place to set clear guidelines for employees. Additionally, this can reduce the risk of legal risk, and the absence of certain policies may reflect badly on your business in the event of a tribunal claim made against you.
Recommended Employment Policies
The workplace policies chosen for your organisation should reflect the values and culture of the business. For small businesses, the recommended policies may be more limited than bigger organisations. With size comes more employees which can lead to more risk, therefore the need for policies may differ.
Conduct at Work Policy
Conduct-related policies are important for all employees, but especially lend themselves to new-starters who can better understand the standards expected from them. Some examples of matters that might be addressed in policies could be:
- Attendance and absence
- Dress code
- Performance expectations and appraisals
- Smoking or vaping on premises
- Alcohol or substance use
- Computer, email, internet and phone use
- Social media
- Confidentiality and data protection
- Probationary periods and criminal record checks
- Training and development
Health and Safety Policy
Every organisation with 5 or more employees must have a written health and safety policy. This should be shared with all staff, who should be updated if changes are made to the policy. Generally, a health and safety policy will outline how employers will manage the health and safety of staff and visitors. This should extend to who will do what, when and how in certain situations. The policy should include the following components:
- Your general policy on health and safety, with your goals and commitment to managing health and safety.
- The names and roles of people who have certain responsibilities related to health and safety.
- The health and safety arrangements you have in place, with explanation for how this will be achieved.
Diversity
Employees should be aware of the employment policies that relate to their welfare. For example:
- Equality and equal opportunities
- Disability and other forms of discrimination
- Victimisation in the workplace
- Stress at work
- Whistleblowing and protected disclosures
Disciplinaries, dismissals and grievances
In all contracts of employment, you must outline your written disciplinary and grievance procedures. The disciplinary policy should include the working and conduct standards that the company follows when dealing with poor performance or misconduct. It should reference the steps within the process of disciplinary action.
A written grievance procedure should also be explained to staff, so they understand how to raise a formal complaint, what process will be taken to investigate the complaint and what the employee should do if they don’t feel satisfied by the outcome.
As mentioned, these procedures should both meet minimum statutory requirements. It’s not mandatory to follow this code, but this might affect your outcome at an employment tribunal if a claim is bought against you.
Company policies and procedures can be tricky to navigate, whether you’re creating them or updating existing ones. At Premier Legal, we have extensive experience with a wide range of policies, so we can help with setting and documenting these. Contact us today for more details about employment policies, or if you need advice on an alternative employment law matter.
