13 Essential Human Resources Policies and Procedures
As a responsible employer, there are some human resource policies and procedures that it is essential for your company to have. Your employees are probably the biggest cost to your business. To get the most out of this valuable and expensive resource, you need to ensure that you are doing everything correctly and that your HR policies and procedures are not only legal and appropriate, but also serve their purpose.
In many companies, especially smaller ones, HR policies and procedures are often near the bottom of the priority list, that is, if they appear at all. In many of these companies, the HR function is the responsibility of an employee who may have secretarial, payroll, or office administration duties, as well as other responsibilities. Often times, your HR role is limited to dealing with new incumbents and exits.
The daunting task many companies face is knowing where to start and what HR policies and procedures they must have in order to be legally compliant.
There are a dozen human resource policies and procedures that every business should have. This article will walk you through each one and briefly explain why it is essential that you have it.
1. Specification of the position and personal profiles:
It is important that your hiring process is correct to hire the best person for the job. That means you must have a written job specification, which adequately describes the job function. That’s a start, but it also needs its counterpart: the personal profile. This document describes the qualities, qualifications, and experiences necessary to successfully perform the job function described in the job description.
These documents must be specific to the role. Without them, you can’t measure an employee’s performance. You also can’t praise them or take corrective action if you’ve never told them what’s expected of them.
This topic is discussed in detail in the next article in this series: Why you need a job specification and a personal profile.
2. Employment contracts:
The law requires that certain terms and conditions of employment be set out in writing and delivered to the employee within eight weeks of the start of employment. These include the main terms and conditions of employment, such as salary, overtime pay, paid vacations, normal working hours, collective agreements, etc. The employment contract should also guide your employee to other important policies and procedures that you should be aware of.
3. Management of trial periods:
This policy should establish the expectations and standards of behavior, work and attitude of all new employees. You better be part of your induction process. Most new hires are placed on a probationary period. This gives you time to assess whether the new hire is cutting the mustard or if, with additional training, they will achieve the required standard in a reasonable amount of time or if it was a poor appointment. This policy should help guide the new hire and their managers in reviewing performance, and also in deciding whether to confirm the appointment at the end of the probationary period.
4. Performance management:
This is closely related to the management of probationary periods as it is actually an extension of that policy. Provides a clear and transparent method to address any performance or capacity issues. It is also linked to your dismissal and disciplinary policy, as some instances of unacceptable performance may be intentional and not caused by lack of training or ability.
5 and 6. Discipline and dismissal policy and complaint procedure:
It is a legal requirement that you have these policies and procedures. They should describe your dismissal and disciplinary policy and grievance procedure, which should include an appeal mechanism.
7. Sick leave and sick pay:
This policy, which is suitable for inclusion in the employment contract, establishes its rules for notifying the absence due to illness or disability, whether the employee can self-certify his absence and, if so, for how long and what payment he will make. be entitled during such periods of absence.
8. Right to vacation:
All full-time employees in the UK are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid vacation per year. This is limited to 28 days, which may include public holidays and bank holidays. These are sometimes called WTR work or vacation time. If you grant more vacations than the legal minimums, you can set rules to carry over the unused vacations to the next vacation year. However, please note that WTR vacations cannot be extended.
9. Use of IT:
Especially with the temptations of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and the Internet, it is best if your employees know clearly and in advance what use of IT is and what is not acceptable. This policy should also cover employees who use their own devices, either during normal business hours or in the course of their work.
10. Data protection policy:
This is an important policy. It is not just about the data you store, including personal data and sensitive personal data, but also how and where you store it, how and where it is processed, and how you protect it. Failure to protect this data could not only lead to a huge loss of customer goodwill, but also a penalty large enough, potentially, to seriously affect the future of your business.
11. Equal opportunities:
The Equality Act 2010 brought together all the pieces of UK law related to discrimination and harassment in one place. It is very important to make sure you know and understand your company’s obligations and that your employees know what to do and what not to do or say.
12. Appraisal policy:
Many companies, especially smaller ones, consider a formal appraisal policy optional. I do not agree. A good evaluation policy helps you and your employee to identify your weaknesses and allows you to implement an appropriate training program to help you make the necessary improvements.
This policy also provides you with an objective basis for considering salary reviews.
13. Manufacturing weight:
The requirements of health and safety legislation permeate all aspects of employment, from the choice of equipment in the workplace, the risk assessment of a task, to the notification of occupational accidents. As a legal minimum, you must have a health and safety policy statement. This is the basic information that tells staff what you and they should do to make sure your business complies with health and safety laws.
Health and safety policies are job, activity and site specific. Because of this, it is common for companies to incorporate their health and safety policy into their personnel manual by reference.
These dozen or so HR policies and procedures are the bare minimum you need to make sure your business is compliant.
How do your HR policies and procedures compare to this list? Are they up to date?
Each of these thirteen policies and procedures are discussed in more detail in separate articles in this series, beginning with Why you need a job specification and a personal profile.