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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.

Implementing an email policy - checklist

Read our checklist on creating a workplace email policy, establishing security procedures and letting your employees know what's expected of them.

  • You don't have to start from scratch. You can find advice about what to include, along with sample email policies and email disclaimers online.
  • Create an individual email account for each employee. Make sure each account is protected by a strong password. You might also want to set up general addresses like [email protected].
  • Establish who is responsible for each account. You should also decide how incoming emails will be handled when an employee is absent. For instance, is another member of staff expected to answer queries sent to your sales address?
  • Establish security procedures. Make sure passwords are strong and change them regularly. Ideally, your email server should be encrypted. You should also use security software to scan incoming and outgoing emails for security problems.
  • Specify what use of email is prohibited. For instance, you should ban the use of email for sending or receiving offensive material or engaging in illegal activities.
  • Set limits on personal use of email. For example, you may want to allow staff to use their email for personal messages only outside of working hours or during their breaks. You might also consider putting a limit on attachment sizes.
  • Set up personalised signatures for outgoing emails. These should include key company information (your company's registered name, place of registration, registration number and address of its registered office).
  • Consider adding a disclaimer to email signatures. Bear in mind that these have little legal authority and may be ineffective - especially as people will probably see them after they have already read the email. Seek legal advice if you are unsure.
  • Establish rules on sending confidential and personal information. Make sure these meet the requirements of data protection regulations.
  • Let employees know how emails are monitored and stored. Make sure any monitoring complies with legal restrictions protecting privacy.
  • Communicate the policy to all staff. Make sure it forms part of your induction process for new employees and provide appropriate training in effective use of email and the legal issues.
  • Use the policy to protect your employees too. Email can be highly disruptive to members of staff trying to get things done. You might want to make it clear that it's fine for staff to shut down their email if they need to concentrate. Or go further, and designate one day a week as email free.
  • Clarify the disciplinary consequences of breaching the policy. Make sure you enforce it consistently and fairly.

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