At LexLeyton we meet and speak to a wide range of
businesses about anything and everything to do with HR and employment law.
One topic that comes up a lot, particularly with
smaller businesses and start-ups, is why having an employee handbook and
keeping it up to date is so important. So why should you have a handbook? And
if you already have one, why should you have it reviewed?
Meet your minimum legal obligations
There are lots of pieces of legislation that impact
upon how businesses manage their people and dictate what information must be
given to employees when they start.
Some of this information must be provided in a ‘written
statement’ (typically the contract of employment) whilst other bits can be
provided in ‘some other document which is reasonably accessible to the
employee’. That ‘some other document’ is often an employee handbook.
To comply with the ‘written statement’ requirements
an employee handbook should typically contain as a bare minimum;
- disciplinary procedures and rules,
- grievance procedures,
- details about sick pay and procedures,
- information about pensions (even more important now that all employers are subject to the pension auto-enrolment regime).
In addition any business with more than five employees
is required by law to have a written health and safety policy and to bring this
to the attention of all employees – so something else to think about including
in your handbook.
Whilst ticking legal boxes is important, a well put together handbook can do much more to benefit your business, it’s culture, and your ability to attract and retain the best people.
Satisfy other legal obligations
The must have requirements outlined above apply to
virtually all employers, but some will have other legal boxes they need to
tick. For example, it will probably not have escaped your attention that last
year there was a fundamental change to the UK’s data protection legislation.
GDPR and the new Data Protection Act 2018 place
significantly more emphasis on transparency in the way in which data is managed
to include employee data, and make it harder to simply rely on consent as a justification
for processing it; which is an approach many employers had taken previously.
Onerous accountability obligations mean that employers
need to have put in place, communicated and embedded appropriate policies and
procedures in order to demonstrate compliance.
One way of achieving transparency around employee data
processing, rather than relying on consent, is to make sure you have a ‘privacy
notice’ setting out the types of data which you may gather during the
course of someone’s employment with your business, how it will be processed,
and your justification for all of that.
Including this document in your employee handbook is a
great way of ensuring it is brought to the attention of your people, helping
you to demonstrate compliance with the new regime.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is
in charge of enforcing GDPR and Data Protection has made it clear it will take
a firm approach to breaches of the new laws.
Meet third party obligations
Most businesses will have some kind of obligation to
third parties such as their key clients or suppliers, some imposed by contract
and some by law. Where these exist it is vital to ensure that employees
understand what they have a duty around, or are responsible for.
As an example, the Modern Slavery Act requires all
companies with a turnover of more than £36 million to publish a statement
explaining the steps they have taken, to ensure that their business is not
tainted by slavery or human trafficking.
That may sound like an issue that only impacts large
companies. In practice it actually impacts the whole supply chain as the larger
companies who are required to publish statements will look to the smaller
companies who supply them for reassurances about their own approach to modern
slavery. For that reason many of our clients are finding that having a policy
on modern slavery is a pre-requisite to winning new contracts and keeping
existing ones.
Of course a policy is unlikely to be effective if it
has not been communicated to employees, so it should be in the handbook.
Protect the business
Having the right set of policies and procedures in
place can help employers avoid nasty consequences when their employees have
done something wrong.
In cases of sexual harassment for example where
employers are in principle, liable for the acts of their individual employees,
a business can defend itself by showing that it took ‘all reasonable steps’
to prevent the behaviour. To run that defence it is vital to be able to show
that adequate policies and procedures were in place, communicated to all
employees, and that they were treated seriously. Having the policies in the
handbook will help to demonstrate that.
Another area to think about is ‘whistleblowing’. To encourage exposure of wrongdoing in the workplace, certain protection is offered to employees who ‘blow the whistle’ about things they witness so they can’t be punished or dismissed for speaking out.
Most employers would rather know what is happening in
their business and prefer to hear it from the inside, rather than have
disgruntled employees leave or, worse, speak out publicly or even report them
to the authorities. An open culture can be encouraged by having a clear policy
on whistleblowing which empowers employees to report matters internally and
reassures them of their legal protections. Another benefit of having a
whistleblowing policy is that an employee who ignores it, and speaks out publicly
without coming to the business first, may well find that they no longer qualify
for protection.
LexLeyton can help you draft or update your existing employee handbook. If you would like a free review and consultation with one of our expert employment solicitors to help you get started with a set of bespoke recommendations please register here
