Employment policies - which ones do employers need and why

Understanding how to structure and implement workplace policies is crucial for effective business management. Keeping policies separate from employment contracts provides essential flexibility for employers.

When policies are contractual (included in or explicitly referenced in the contract), any changes require employee agreement. By maintaining standalone policies, employers can update procedures to meet business needs without triggering contractual negotiations. This is particularly valuable for evolving areas like IT, social media, and working practices.

Key employment policies your business needs

• Disciplinary Policy - essential for fair dismissals and ACAS compliance. Sets out misconduct types, investigation process, and consequences. Protects business by ensuring consistent treatment and helps defend tribunal claims.

• Grievance Policy - the framework for handling employee complaints properly. Sets clear timeframes and process for investigations. Essential for preventing small issues escalating to tribunal claims.

• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy - protects against discrimination claims by showing preventative steps. Covers all protected characteristics and sets standards for acceptable behavior. Important for defending tribunal claims.

• Sickness Absence Policy - manages both short and long-term absence. Sets reporting procedures and trigger points for action. Crucial for consistent absence management and controlling costs.

• Family-Friendly Policies - covers maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave. Explains statutory and any enhanced benefits. Essential for legal compliance and consistent treatment.

• IT and Communications Policy - sets rules for workplace technology use, including personal devices and social media. Protects company data and defines acceptable use. Important for cyber security and misconduct issues.

• Flexible Working Policy - framework for handling flexible working requests fairly. Increasingly important with hybrid working. Sets out business grounds for accepting/refusing requests.

• Anti-Harassment Policy - defines unacceptable behavior and reporting procedures. Essential for defending harassment claims. Shows company took preventative steps.

How we Can Help

Our experienced employment team provides comprehensive support for policy development and management. We understand the practical challenges businesses face and offer solutions that work in reality, not just in theory.

We can help you :-

• Draft appropriate policies that reflect your business needs and culture while ensuring legal compliance

• Update existing documents to address new risks or opportunities

• Train managers to implement policies effectively and consistently

• Handle implementation of new policies with minimum disruption

• Manage policy changes while maintaining good employee relations

• Deal with disputes arising from policy application

Contact us for practical support with your employment policies.

Policies, handbooks and contractual status

The relationship between employment contracts, handbooks and policies often causes confusion and whether policies are contractually binding is crucial for employers. It affects both how they can be changed and how they can be enforced.

The clearest way policies become contractual is through explicit inclusion in employment documents If the employment contract specifically incorporates policies or handbook. This makes the policies explicitly contractual and creates binding obligations on both parties.Even without express incorporation, policies can become contractually binding as implied terms through consistent application.

A staff handbook typically collects all workplace policies into one document for easy reference. However, there's an important distinction :-

• Individual policies can be standalone documents or part of a handbook - employers can choose to have detailed standalone policies for complex areas (like disciplinary procedures) while keeping simpler policies within the handbook.

• A handbook often includes general information beyond policies - this might cover practical information like office locations, company history, and dress code that doesn't need the formal status of a policy.

• Some employers keep detailed policies separate from a basic handbook - this approach works well when policies need regular updating or apply to different groups of staff differently.

• The handbook might reference policies rather than contain them in full - helps manage document length and ensures staff always refer to the current version of important policies.

Advantages of non-contractual employee policies

For Non-Contractual Policies, employers can update without employee agreement. This provides flexibility to adapt to changing business needs quickly. Breaches can be handled through normal disciplinary processes.

With contractual policies, changes require employee consultation/agreement. This makes updates slower and more complicated.

Contractual policies give employees additional legal protections and may bind employer more strictly:

Importance of making some parts of your policies contractual

With some employee policies it's important to make them contractual terms, such as :-

• Post-termination restrictions - need contractual force to be enforceable.

• Confidentiality obligations - better protection if contractually binding.

• Commission schemes - clarity on contractual entitlements.

• Bonus arrangements - clear contractual framework for payments.