Staff handbook and HR policies

It is not essential that you have a , but it is good practice. You are legally required to provide certain policies to and can use your handbook to set these out alongside your other operational policies and procedures. This section provides a template and guides you through what HR policies you should put in place before taking on and what those policies should say. This includes policies that you are legally required to provide and those that are recommended.

Staff handbook

  1. 1.Do I need a staff handbook?
  2. 2.What should be included in my staff handbook?
  3. 3.Which of my staff should my handbook apply to?
  4. 4.How often do I need to update my staff handbook?
  5. 5.Do I need my staff's consent to change a policy in my staff handbook?
  6. 6.Is my staff handbook contractual?
  7. 7.How can I avoid my staff handbook becoming contractual?

HR policies

  1. 8.What HR policies should I put in place before taking on staff?
  2. 9.What HR policies am I legally required to have in place?
  3. 10.What should my sickness absence policy say?
  4. 11.What should my annual leave policy say?
  5. 12.What should my grievance, whistleblowing and bullying and harassment policies say?
  6. 13.What should my disciplinary policy say?
  7. 14.What should my equal opportunities policy say?
  8. 15.What should my anti-bribery and corruption policy say?
  9. 16.What should my maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies say?
  10. 17.What should my flexible working policy say?
  11. 18.What should my policies to deal with caring responsibilities and compassionate leave say?
  12. 19.What should my policy to deal with jury service and public duties say?
  13. 20.What should my dress-code policy say?

Contract - casual worker

This casual worker contract is suitable for a casual or zero hours worker and is likely to be most suitable if your staffing needs fluctuate, for example if you have a business model that requires a bank of staff that you can call on as needed, without having to pay them if you have no work. The contract includes all the information that you are legally obliged to provide to your casual worker in writing about their terms of engagement, and is fully customisable to your individual requirements. It also includes a number of standard protections for your business, for example to guard your confidential information and ensure any intellectual property created by the casual worker belongs to the company.
£25 + VAT

Data protection policy

A data protection policy is an internal document providing a framework for how your organisation will comply with its data protection obligations when handling personal data. This includes what expectations you have of your staff when they are processing personal data on your behalf and how different legal obligations should be complied with. It might also be referred to as a data security policy, a data protection statement or a staff data protection policy. Whenever your business processes personal data, you are under strict legal requirements to put in place appropriate measures to ensure that your processing is compliant with data protection law at all times. This template will help you to set out what obligations your staff are under when they are processing any personal data for your business. This policy could form part of your staff handbook or it could be provided as a standalone policy. If you’re looking to produce an entire staff handbook, use our template staff handbook instead. Alternatively you can purchase this policy as part of the Data protection policy toolkit or the Remote working and cybersecurity toolkit .
£25 + VAT
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