What is an Employee Handbook?
An employee handbook lays out the entitlement and rights of staff, and the HR policies and procedures that must be followed while working as an employee, along with any pertinent employment legislation governing behaviour and conduct in the country of work. For this reason employee handbooks need to be country specific and written in line with local employment law in order to be appropriate for use by an employer. Employee handbooks also set out the standards of conduct, culture and values which employees of the company should embody.
What Policies Are Normally Included in an Employee Handbook UK?
These are the policies you will normally find in an employee handbook UK.
- Annual Leave
- Absence Policy
- Maternity, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave
- Disciplinary Policy
- Grievance Policy
- Workstation Usage Policy
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Data Protection (GDPR compliance)
- Flexible Working Policy
- Whistleblowing Policy
- Computer Usage Policy
- Working Time Regulations
- Communications
- Anti-bribery and corruption
- Redundancy Policy
- Health and Safety Policy Statement
Is it a Legal Requirement to have an Employee Handbook in the UK?
While it is highly recommended that employers have an employee handbook in the UK, it is not a legal requirement. However, it is a legal requirement to have a Grievance Procedure, (normally included in an employee handbook or written statement of particulars), which explains what an employee should do if they have a dispute at work of any kind. It is also a legal requirement to have a disciplinary procedure, (normally included in an employee handbook or written statement of particulars), which provides rules as to how staff and their management should deal with disciplinary matters involving staff and under-performance by staff. When you have 5 or more employees it is a legal requirement to have a written health and safety policy, (often included in your employee handbook).
Tribunals can uplift compensation awards by 20% if an employer fails to comply with statutory procedures as set out in this handbook on disciplinary and grievance and prevention of sexual harassment in accordance with s 207A Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
How Often Does An Employee Handbook Have to Be Updated?
To be effective an employee handbook must reflect both prevailing employment legislation and the policies and procedures that your company actually functions buy. Therefore an employee handbook needs to be updated whenever there is a change in employment legislation, which can be as often as once a year, and it should also be updated when there is a real world change to working conditions, otherwise the employee handbook will fall out of date and employees won’t read it. Employees need to be notified of each update.
Do Employees Have to Sign The Employee Handbook
While there is no legal requirement to sign the employee handbook you can and should make it a condition of employment that the employee signs a declaration that that they have read and understood the employee handbook. In practice this should be signed prior to the start of employment, otherwise the employee could claim defense against a breach of conduct that they had not been informed of the appropriate rule.
