Set up employment policies for your business
Employment policies: what types should I use?
The employment policies that you have will depend on the size and nature of your business. For example, if your staff operate machinery, it may be a good idea to implement a specific staff policy on drugs and alcohol use. If most of your staff use computers most of the time, you should have an email and internet acceptable use policy.
Common types of employment policies
| Type of Employment policy | Further Information |
|---|---|
| Maternity/paternity/adoption/parental bereavement policy | Statutory leave and pay entitlements |
| Working time and time off policy | Working time |
| Equality and diversity workplace policy | Diversity, equality, and inclusion in the workplace |
| Health and safety policy | Health and safety |
| Pay policy | Staff pay |
| Bullying and harassment policy | Bullying and harassment |
| Rewards, benefits and expenses policy | Expenses and benefits |
| Discipline/dismissal and grievance policy | Dismissing employees |
| Redundancy policy | Redundancy, restructures, and change |
| Measures to improve performance or manage change | |
| Bribery policy | Anti-bribery policies |
| Policies on the use of company facilities, eg email, internet, and phone use | Other key HR policies and templates |
| Training and development policy | Performance management and staff training templates |
| Policy of right of search/social media usage | Policies to help you protect your assets |
| Patents and copyrights policy | Patents, trademarks, copyright, and design |
| Confidential information policy | UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) |
| Policies on whistleblowing/protected disclosures | Policies to help you protect your assets |
| Smoking, drugs, and alcohol policies | Workplace policies on smoking, drugs, and alcohol |
| Sickness absence policy | Absence and sickness policies: what to include |
| Flexible working policy | Flexible working: the law and best practice |
| Hybrid working policy | Hybrid working - employer guidance |
To access employment policy templates that you can download, tailor, and use for your business, see HR documents and templates.
Employment document toolkit
The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) also has a free employment document toolkit, once employers are registered they can unlock free core employment guides to help them build documents, policies, and procedures for their own organisation.
Employment policies: legal requirements
Note that it is a legal requirement to set out your health and safety policy in writing if you have five or more employees. It is also a legal requirement to set out your disciplinary rules and discipline and grievance procedures in writing.
If, following an assessment, there is a risk that someone performing services for your business might carry out acts of bribery, you will need to have a procedure in place to prevent such acts. Read more on anti-bribery policies.
Communicating your employment policies
A workplace policy can be part of your employee/company handbook or you could set it out in a separate document. However, for your discipline and grievance policies, you must either set them out in a written statement of main terms and conditions of employment or refer in a written statement to a place where the employee can read them, eg the company intranet.
You should make staff aware that your employment policies exist, particularly during the induction process - see induction programme: what to include, and make sure workers can easily access them if necessary, eg by having them pinned up on a noticeboard or put on the company intranet.
Employment policies: contractual status
Workplace policies generally aren't contractually binding unless they expressly state otherwise.
However, terms of some employment policies could be seen as contractually binding through custom and practice, ie where workers follow certain working practices or receive certain benefits over a significant period of time, and ultimately it will be up to an Industrial Tribunal to decide on the contractual nature of policies.
