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Practical employment law information to support your business, from Clover HR

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Establishing a successful recruitment process and clear written employment contracts for new employees can have a major impact on your business.

Every business needs to be aware of its obligations under minimum wage and equal pay laws, as well as recent pensions auto-enrolment changes.

You must comply with legal restrictions on employees' working hours and time off, or risk claims, enforcement action and even prosecution.

The right employment policies are an essential part of effective staff management. Make sure any policy is clear and well communicated to employees.

While sick employees need to be treated fairly, you need to ensure that 'sickness' is not being used as cover for unauthorised absence.

Most pregnant employees are entitled to maternity leave and maternity pay, while new fathers are entitled to paternity leave and paternity pay.

As well as undermining morale, illegal discrimination can lead to workplace grievances. Employee discrimination is covered by the Equality Act 2010.

Home, remote and lone workers are becoming increasingly commonplace. Key issues include communication and how to manage and motivate people remotely.

The right approach to consulting with and providing information to your employees can improve employee motivation and performance.

Disciplinary and grievance issues can be a major burden to employers. Putting in place and following the right procedures is essential.

Following the right dismissal and redundancy procedures helps protect your business and minimise the risk of a legal dispute at tribunal.

Employment tribunal claims are a worrying prospect for any employer. A tribunal case is a no-win situation – even if the claim is unjustified.

Creating a workplace code of conduct - checklist

A code of conduct should eliminate grey areas around acceptable behaviour in your workplace, as well as giving you a point of reference should problems arise in the future.

  • Decide what to include in the code. It should promote your business' values by providing guidance to staff on how you expect them to behave in the workplace, and how they should conduct themselves with customers, suppliers and even members of the public.
  • Be specific where necessary. For example, state that staff must arrive by a certain time each day, answer the phone in a certain way, wear appropriate clothing or only use the internet for personal use during their lunch hour.
  • Ensure it fits with your firm's values. If you try to make drastic changes to your business' culture it may be hard to enforce. Consider what is most important to productivity and staff morale.
  • Be flexible and take into account individual circumstances. For example, if your code says you won't tolerate lateness, you risk putting staff with caring responsibilities at a disadvantage.
  • Make your code of conduct a formal policy - ensure you add it to staff contracts or handbooks. In order to make any contractual changes, you must consult with employees and ask them to sign their agreement.
  • Communicate your code of conduct by sending round an email, making a copy available on your company intranet or pinning a copy on the wall as a visible reminder.
  • Implement your code of conduct by ensuring that you and other senior staff set a good example, and by making staff aware that breaches of the code will be followed up.
  • Deal with breaches promptly. These may force you to take serious action, but for less serious offences a quiet word is likely to be sufficient. Refer to the Acas code of practice on discipline and grievance procedures for guidance.

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