HR Documentation Review
The Brief
A well respected and established Company recently realised the implications of having outdated HR documentation, having been presented with an employment tribunal claim.
Alongside this tribunal, the Company found themselves immersed in a complex social media disciplinary matter, which proved even more challenging as they did not have a social media policy in place. Following these two encounters, the Company acknowledged the inaccuracy of their policies, handbook and contracts and recognised the requirement for an extensive documentation update to ensure legal compliance and provide consistency and transparency for both employees and managers on a range of employment issues. We were appointed to put this right.
The Solution
One of our team members initially reviewed the Company’s existing documentation, taking account of the Company’s culture, structure and current HR approach.
This enabled the consultant to decide upon the most suitable approach to adopt when re-drafting the Company’s policies and procedures.
The review revealed:
- An outdated handbook of some seven years, including several invalid sections such as retirement ages, national minimum wage rates and maternity rates; potentially exposing the Company to discrimination claims
- Missing policies – including social media, modern slavery, shared parental leave and IT and communications
- Variable contractual terms and conditions including inconsistent notice periods and absence reporting procedures
- Lack of important contractual clauses including the right to search, intellectual property rights and confidentiality
- Lack of clarity on disciplinary and grievance procedures
Having undertaken this initial review, Kane HR met with the Company Director to discuss how we should best tailor the policies, handbook and contracts to fit with the Company’s culture, whilst ensuring the new set of documents were compliant and up-to-date with current UK employment legislation. Following this meeting, we created a bespoke set of documents, which were user-friendly and took into account unique requirements of the Company; aligning these documents with their current stance on employment issues. Several policies were revised and updated, whilst others were created by our consultants and tailored towards the business’ requirements.
Once complete, the Company uploaded these documents onto their intranet, enabling all employees to easily access them at their leisure, to research or familiarise themselves with any employee related issues. To reduce the risk of experiencing similar issues in the future Kane HR now provide the Company with continual policy support by maintaining the HR documentation available on the intranet, ensuring that it is at all times fully up-to-date according to UK employment legislation changes.
Prompt, friendly & professional service. Always on hand and have a great understanding of our needs.
Managing Director, Hydraulic Specialist Company
The Outcome
Employees and managers now have the confidence to use the policies and procedures as needed, as an easy to use reference point on how to manage a range of employment issues.
The development of fair and consistent documentation has enabled the Company to implement their HR strategy effectively, whilst managing and developing their people.
The Company can also now take comfort in the knowledge that Kane HR is proactively maintaining their documentation for them in line with legislative changes to ensure legal compliance at all times and ultimately reduce their risk of future potential employment claims.
Since receiving the new set of bespoke documentation, the Director has saved a great deal of time previously spent on researching employment law changes, and he and the senior management team are now able to focus their energies on other aspects of their business. Using Kane HR to review and update their documentation has proved to be a cost-effective and worthwhile investment.