Time to take stock? 5 top tips for employers.

From an employment law perspective, here is my list of those really important tasks that every employer should now consider and put into place in the New Year if not achieved already;

1. Check that all employees have got employment contracts. If not, have they at least got written particulars of employment and terms and conditions as required by section 1 of the Employment Rights Act?  Failure to provide such a statement within 8 weeks of the employee starting can lead to difficulties at a tribunal and a claim can be made by an aggrieved employee if such a statement has not been provided.

2. Are all your policies and procedures are up to date e.g. do you have a diversity policy or a social media policy? More importantly if you have such policies do you know what they say and do you adhere to them?

3. Have you taken steps to protect your business against cyber crime or from employees misusing (either inadvertently or deliberately) company and client data?

4. What will you do if your most valuable employee decides to hand in their notice and leave? How will you cope without them?  How easy would it be to replace them?  You need to check what length notice period they have and also whether there are any restrictive covenants in place to potentially restrict what they might do once they have moved on.

5. If an employee decides to raise a grievance or you find they have been misbehaving whilst in employment with you, would you know what steps to take and how to approach the problem? Who would you call?  It is always important to try and deal with grievances and disciplinary problems correctly. Failure to do so can lead to not only an adverse finding in an employment tribunal but potentially an increase in the amount of compensation that is awarded against the employer if the employee is successful.  Are your managers trained in how to deal with disciplinary and grievance matters?  If not, consider getting them trained.

So those are my top 5 tips to put on your employment law to do list.  If of course you need any help with any of them please do get in contact.