Staff Handbooks
While Staff Handbooks may sound like an unnecessary expense for the typical small business, these can be hugely beneficial & relatively cheap.
Whereas a Statement of Particulars has to be provided to each employee within two months of them commencing work, a staff handbook can be much more flexible & detailed, setting out your policies on sick leave, company benefits, employees general duties & responsibilities, dress codes, use of personal phones while at work, or just about anything you might want your staff to be aware of & adhere to. And if you’ve got suitable Contracts of Employment in place, you can amend the Staff Handbook as you identify new issues, and these changes will automatically alter the Contracts of Employment (if you don’t have a clause that provides for amendments to the Contract, you are restricted on the changes you can subsequently make to this, so do discuss this with the Employment Law Clinic in advance).
While this document is described as a Staff Handbook it needn’t be more than a brief document that is available for staff to access – you won’t need to incur the cost of getting booklets printed, and distributing these to all staff, you could simply make copies available to your staff at their normal place of work.
To discuss preparing a Staff Handbook for your business, contact the Employment Law Clinic by calling us on 020 3239 0569 or email handbooks@employmentlawclinc.com, and we’ll advice you how to tighten up your HR policies, and get more extensive guidance in place for all your staff.