Happy Monday! It isn’t quite a happy Monday for me because over the weekend, I travelled up to Manchester to watch the Red Army play aaaaannnd… we lost. Fun fact: Manchester United have lost the last 3 games that I have gone to watch. But it isn’t a coincidence, we lose most weeks. Whilst plodding down the M6 last night, I did contemplate why I even bother but then I started to think, everyone has their unreasonable obsessions – for example, Philip is obsessed with Taylor Swift even though she can be incredibly hit or miss. I am obsessed with my team (football… not work) despite the grief they cause me every single weekend. A question for you, what obsession/hobby do you have that no matter how much grief it causes, you enjoy it anyway for no logical reason?
On with the blog! This week’s blog will be providing the yin to the yang of my last blog which was on my top tips for litigation in employment law. This week, I will be giving you my top tips for employers and HR in a non-litigation context. In my short time at Precept, I have picked up a few tips on how to ease the load of the day-to-day struggle when managing employees which I have set out for you below.
1 Policies are king
Policies are important as they provide clarity, consistency and protection for both the employer and the employee. From a practical perspective, they provide the basis for how an employer acts day-to-day. They set clear expectations to employees on the standard they should uphold and provide guidance in various situations. Policies can often be split into two parts – the part that sets out the law that both the employer and employee must follow and the part that sets out the way the company chooses to operate. Whilst employers are bound by law (obviously), there is wiggle room for employers to implement their own practices via their policies.
To ensure you get the best out of your policies, I recommend the following:
- Keep policies under regular review to keep up with the latest legal updates. For example, since October 2024, new law came into force which required employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Whilst most employers have policies on harassment in the workplace, we would STRONGLY advise on having a separate policy on sexual harassment which sets out how the company deals with it.
- Ensure that your policies cover the most important topics and those that are relevant to you. For example, the obvious policies such as grievance and disciplinary procedures (which you’re required to have under the Acas Code), sickness absence policies, diversity policies etc. are a given but what about policies that are specific to your company? Does your workplace have CCTV such that a CCTV policy is needed? Do you provide company cars such that a policy is needed to cover the use of company vehicles?
- Ensure that you are familiar with relevant policies. For example, if you are a line manager, you should be familiar with the company’s grievance policy so that during the early stages of a grievance, you are aware of how you should react and are aware of the steps that need to be taken. Training is key on this, as we always say.
If you would like assistance in policy reviews, give us a shout via the contact information below.
2 Have those difficult conversations
Nobody likes difficult conversations. My team will attest that they have seen countless situations where we have been instructed on an issue that has spiralled out of control that could very easily have been resolved with a simple, early conversation. In my short time at Precept and prior, I have come across multiple claims where a simple misunderstanding led to a dreaded ET1 (claim form) arriving at an employer’s office on a Monday morning. If you had the choice between having a free conversation that makes you feel uncomfortable for 20 minutes or spending thousands on pounds and spending hours of your time dealing with an upset employee, surely you’d pick the former?
Where possible, the approach should always be to nip things in the bud early on. This can be either through an informal conversation whether it be a chat in the office kitchen (but ensuring privacy and confidentiality) or a scheduled casual catchup between employee and supervisor. If a formal conversation is required, refer back to your policies to ensure you are following the correct procedure and have the conversation in a timely manner. Procrastination is tempting but by putting off important conversations, you risk condoning the behaviour until it is addressed and you risk damaging the morale and the productivity of the team by failing to address an issue that others may be aware of.
3 Document it all
Documenting matters is essential as it underpins fairness, accountability and legal defensibility. If I hear Emma talk about a “paper trail” one more time… Documentation is important for both employers and employees. If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it fall, did it make a sound? If you ever end up in an unfortunate situation where a grievance is made against a member of staff, determining the outcome of the grievance will lie in the evidence available. Without documented conversations and correspondence, it is difficult to prove what happened, what was considered and why certain decisions were made. I did say today’s blog is not about litigation, but what is the worst possible outcome (within reason) of a failure to deal with a workplace issue? A claim. How do you defend a claim? With facts backed by evidence.
When undergoing a formal process, you should always document the steps taken, what was said, what decisions were reached, and why they were reached. Documentation also helps facilitate continuation in long-running issues and ensures that matters can be handed over with ease. Good documentation also supports consistency in that it allows you to check whether the correct process is being followed and can later be referred to when future, similar situations arise.
All in all, the world of HR and managing people can be difficult but it doesn’t have to be harder than it actually is. Follow my top tips for a bit of ease and if you would like any advice on non-litigation, litigation or anything in-between, please give me or another member of the team a shout! You know I’m always happy to help.
Call us on 01332 866610 or email enquiries@precepthr.com
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