Are You in HR Heaven or Hell?!
Human Resources is not usually seen as the most exciting part of a business. It doesn't bring in any money, large parts of it revolve around things like contracts, policies and procedures (which a lot of people find uninteresting) and time spent dealing with HR matters is time you can’t spend focusing on marketing your business.
But have you fallen into the trap of letting your HR function slide? When did you last review your HR documents and how confident are you that if you had to defend a claim in the Employment Tribunal that your business would stand up to scrutiny?
You wouldn’t leave your accounting to chance with the possibility of HMRC knocking on your door. Why would your approach to Human Resources and Employee Relations matters be any different?
So are you in Human Resources Heaven or Hell? Here are some examples:
You have recently reviewed all of your employee handbook policies and procedures to ensure they are compliant with current law, easy to use and you’ve made sure your managers all understand how to apply them - Heaven!
You either don't have a handbook or, if you do, no one has updated it for several years and as far as you are aware it has never been referred to in any matter involving any employee - Hell!
Your standard contract of employment is brilliant, you had it completely redrafted last year, it’s easy to read and you know for a fact it doesn’t contain any clauses that might leave you liable to pay for a benefit which the company no longer offers - Heaven!
Your standard contract of employment has never been updated, your most recent new employee was provided with a contract which had been been cut and pasted from an existing employee’s contract and you’re not 100% sure what your contract contains - Hell!
You’ve made sure that all your managers understand the procedures they must follow in relation to things like requests for flexible working, they have been trained and you are confident that no one is going to let the company down by making unhelpful comments to the member of staff making the request - Heaven!
You’ve recently found out that requests for flexible working are, unjustifiably, being dealt with entirely differently by different managers within your business and you are a bit worried that one of your managers may have used clumsy language that has upset one of the staff members making the request - Hell!
Laborious though it can be, it’s worth taking the time to audit your HR documents from time to time to make sure you’re up-to-date, your managers are trained and that you are actively avoiding the "Hell" scenarios!
Ultimately, if things go wrong with an employee, the tools you have in place for managing difficult situations will impact on your ability to defend yourself in the Employment Tribunal. But equally, with well-drafted and reliable policies and practices in place, it will be easier to shape your company culture into the one you want it to be and that in itself is a good place to start when looking at how to avoid a claim.
If you would like assistance auditing your HR documents or with staff training on how to approach employee relations issues in the workplace I will be happy to help.
