Last year, there have been over 150000 statements by employees against their bosses that were presented to Employment Tribunals and UK organizations paid out in surplus of over £20 million pounds in compensation to employees through Job Tribunals. The vast majority of the claims presented was primarily related to to discrimination based on sex, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, race which was in addition to claims from unreasonable dismissals. By a large margin the highest number claims were related to unfair dismissal.

More often than not, firms don't have suitable working procedures and techniques that have been thoroughly prepared and demonstrated to their the workforce. This scenario causes inevitable complications. If it all would seem to be so clear, why don't small companies embrace a suitable staff handbook structure covering all the necessary areas? You will find many reasons. The company doesn't know the law. The company has not got time to write such a template and, as importantly, make sure it is kept current with amendments to legislation and law. If  ever the recruiter  had the free time to prepare a staff handbook, how may the recruiter  guarantee that it tackled all the important areas.

The main related areas include: maternity leave, personal hygiene, holidays, expenses, acceptable computer use, right to search, equal opportunities, probationary periods, paternity leave, avoidance of harassment and bullying, lateness, dismissal, disciplinary matters, grievance procedures, employee induction, parental leave, compassionate leave, employee training, appearance and dress code.

Certainly, reliant on the nature of the firm, a totally different edition of the staff handbook is needed. So it seems that the only realistic formula is to have a staff handbook template that can be customised to satisfy the individual needs of the company.

To establish proper answers, it truly is important to simplify the particular situation and the future troubles arising. So what would be the challenges? 'How do I ensure that I refresh the memories of my employees at an appropriate frequency?' 'I don't know the law affecting all of my employees and every part of my business.' 'How do I ensure that all my employees have read the staff handbook, understood it and registered their acceptance?' 'How do I ensure that an employee is referring to the latest version of a specific policy or process?' 'Even if I knew the law, how would I find time to create the employee handbook and keep it up to date?'

Once the employee handbook is prepared it truly is crucial to assure that all the workforce have examined it, understood it and documented their approval. Obviously, if ever the company requires to take on these responsibilities manually, it could actually represent a significant distraction from the principal priority of running the business; which, in the end, is the major grounds for establishing in the first place.

You should be careful of a fall directly into the trap of merely broadcasting your strategies and techniques through placing your staff handbook using a internal webpage (aka Intranet) since should you do, you can't display which employee has read them and whether or not they have accepted them.
 


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