Have a question? Call us on 0800 1979 345
The short answer is no, but having somebody to manage HR in your business (whether via an in-house department or through an outsourcing arrangement) puts you in a much better position to be an excellent employer and attract the best talent for your business.
It also ensures that you act in compliance with the law and means that you’re fully equipped and able to handle those inevitable situations which at some stage will affect most businesses, such as disciplinary and grievance issues, handling flexible working requests and correctly managing family rights.
No, this isn’t a legal requirement but it’s strongly advisable for any business, even those just employing one person. A staff handbook makes clear the standards, rules and expectations which support the contract of employment and is instrumental to operating effective HR arrangements and promoting a harmonic and consistent workplace.
It’s very hard (and quite possibly unfair) to expect employees to abide by particular rules and policies if they don’t know what they are and this could also cause issues for an employer who might need to discipline an employee for allegedly breaking the rules they were not aware of.
A detailed staff handbook of essential policies and procedures is a must for any business.
As a minimum, employers should ensure that all employees receive an employment contract which sets out the particulars of their employment and they should also have a staff handbook detailing all rules, policies and procedures applicable to the relationship.
Employment contracts should be bespoke rather than a “one size fits all” document, to ensure that they contain the provisions which you want to apply to that particular employment. You should ask, would it be sensible for your business to employ a senior manager or director on the same written terms which are provided to junior admin employees?
There are also numerous other documents which are advisable for a business to have in place such as job application forms, induction packs and appraisal forms, to name a few.
A specialist employment law solicitor will be able to advise you on all aspects of employment law and ensure that you have the minimum recommended documents in place which all businesses employing staff should have.
At Thorneycroft Solicitors, our Employment & HR team advise businesses in a variety of ways, such as via stand alone or ad hoc arrangements, or more commonly through our annual retainer service, Employment Shield. This is a very competitive, valuable alternative to traditional hourly rates charged by solicitors and allows your business to budget properly for unlimited employment law advice and documents.
If an employee is guilty of gross misconduct then an employer is likely to be able to fairly dismiss them even if they haven’t previously received any warnings. The conduct must be serious enough to be considered gross misconduct and you should ideally have a Disciplinary Policy which contains clear examples of this.
It’s advisable for the employer to undertake a disciplinary process before deciding to dismiss an employee which will include carrying out a reasonable investigation prior to making a decision, otherwise any dismissal might be unfair and potentially in breach of contract.
There are lots of things which can go wrong when an employer decides to discipline an employee and if this is the case, it can be very costly to the business in terms of both money and reputation.
Any conduct issues should be properly investigated first and a fair disciplinary process should be carried out which involves giving an employee certain legal rights and complying with a Code of Practice.
To mitigate any risk arising from disciplinary action against an employee we recommended obtaining legal advice beforehand. Once your solicitor has advised you and ensures that you are fully prepared to carry out the process, it wouldn’t be usual for a solicitor to attend a hearing unless it’s a regulatory requirement.
If an employee is dismissed from their employment, it might be unfair which would entitle them to bring a claim to an employment tribunal if they have the necessary two years’ service.
A dismissal which is unfair can relate to either the decision itself, i.e. if dismissal was too harsh or not a reasonable response to the situation, or it can relate to the procedure followed if the employer did not reasonably investigate, consult and/or follow a fair process, or it might be both.
To decide if an employee was unfairly dismissed, this involves considering all of the circumstances and evidence to evaluate how and why the decision to dismiss was reached. If an employment tribunal finds that a dismissal was unfair the employee can be awarded financial compensation or their job back.
Generally speaking, a redundancy situation arises if a business closes completely, a particular workplace closes or there is a reduced need for employees to do a particular type of work.
If an employer is considering making employees redundant, they should firstly explain the situation to all affected employees and warn their jobs are at risk of redundancy. The employer should then consult with the employees on potential ways to avoid redundancy and if more than one person is affected it may involve selecting the redundant employee(s) from a pool based on objective criteria.
Once redundancy is confirmed, the employer should allow reasonable paid time off for the employee to find another job and give them the right of appeal against the decision.
Depending on the number of redundancies to be made within a particular timeframe, there may also be statutory minimum consultation periods which apply before any decision can be made.
Aside from a fair consultation and the ability to appeal the decision which should form part of a redundancy process as outlined above, employees have a number of financial entitlements.
If they have been employed by the business for at least two years, they are entitled to receive a statutory redundancy payment which is calculated based on their age and length of service as follows:
Length of service is capped at 20 years for redundancy purposes and there is also a statutory cap on weekly pay which is reviewed each year and is currently £525 (as at April 2019).
In addition, employees also entitled to a period of statutory or contractual notice, or payment in lieu of notice, as well as accrued untaken holiday entitlement.
Employees have a variety of employment rights including the following:
Some employment rights depend on length of service with an employer. If employees believe that their employment rights have been breached they may be able to make a claim to an employment tribunal.
This website privacy notice sets out how Thorneycroft Solicitors uses and protects any information that you give Thorneycroft Solicitors when you use this website.
Thorneycroft Solicitors is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.
Thorneycroft Solicitors may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 01/05/2018.
What we collect
We may collect the following information:
We will collect the information directly from you via completion of our enquiry form on the website.
What we do with the information we gather
We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:
We will also collect and process your personal data if you have consented to receiving marketing in respect of our services. You are able to unsubscribe or withdraw your consent at any time by emailing [email protected] or writing to ‘Marketing’ at Thorneycroft Solicitors, 9a Bridge Street Mills, Bridge Street, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 6QA.
Security
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
Retention
If you do not instruct us in relation to your legal matter, your personal details will be retained for a period of 12 months.
If we are instructed in relation to your legal matter, we will keep it in line with our data retention periods. Details of our retention period for your legal matter can be found within our Client Care Letter and/or Terms of Business, under the heading file retention.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Your Rights
Google AdWords
This website uses the Google AdWords remarketing service to advertise on third party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our site. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to make an enquiry. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page, or a site in the Google Display Network. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the website. Of course, any data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy.
You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Preferences page, and if you want to you can opt out of interest-based advertising entirely by cookie settings or permanently using a browser plugin.
×