Staff Handbooks and HR Policies and Procedures

The Staff Handbook needs to complement the Contract but not contradict it. It is important that any non-contractual policies appear in a Staff Handbook and below are some examples of the various policies that you might want to consider including in your Staff Handbook. There may be more and, we will be able to help you identify those once we work with you to prepare the appropriate policies.

By having these policies as non-contractual documents, it allows you to update them without needing to get your employees’ express consent each time. We can also create a separate suite of stand-alone HR policies and procedures if you prefer. 

Policies to include in a Staff Handbook

From our perspective, no two businesses are the same, so it is important that your policies are appropriately drafted and help your business and do not restrict or hinder it in any way.

Depending on the nature and size of your organisation and the number of employees you have, you should consider which employment policies and procedures you should have in place. These may include:

• Annual Leave and other absences
• Sickness Absence management
• Grievance Procedure
• Whistleblowing
• Disciplinary Rules and Procedure
• Performance Improvement Procedure
• Equal Opportunities / Equality and Diversity
• Stress
• Anti-Harassment and Bullying
• Maternity Leave
• Paternity Leave
• Shared Parental Leave (from 2015)
• Adoption Leave
• Parental Leave
• Flexible Working
• Remote / Home working
• Health & Safety
• Adverse Weather and Travel Disruption
• No smoking
• Alcohol and Drug Abuse
• E-mail and Internet
• Social Media
• Anti-corruption and Bribery
• Data Protection
• Redundancy
• Retirement

Protection through employment policies and procedures

Along with the contract of employment, well drafted employment policies and procedures will give you valuable protection. For example, if you are faced with an Employment Tribunal claim of discrimination, you will be in a better position to defend yourself where you can show you have an appropriate Equality and Diversity policy in place, especially where all your staff are aware of it and where your managers have received appropriate training.  We can help by providing you staff with training on all types of employment related policies and procedures.