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Hello and welcome to our HR policies hub! My name is Amy, and I'm CharlieHR's COO, which means I often get involved in all kinds of situations: redundancies, grievances, employment contracts,... You name it, but the one I ask myself is often the same: should I build an HR policy for this?
HR policies may not be the most captivating subject; they’re not as exciting as discussions about growth or performance, but – pretty much like any HR professional, operations manager or chief of staff – they're the foundations on which your business is built.
We wrote this guide as a support system to create your HR policies – you’ll find templates and procedures – downloadable for free – but remember that you’ll be the one making the final decision on what HR policies your business needs.
Our HR policy hub allows you to:
Complying with health and safety regulations matters to your small business, especially if you want to avoid expensive fines along the way and if you care about the well-being of your employees.
Regardless of what you think you’re doing right, there are rules to follow depending on the industry and the role your team members have – so that’s when having a policy in place will help. Just read our guide to find out more or download our template.
Remain compliant by having all the steps for health and safety in place depending on your industry
Download a generic health and safety policy template
Understand the measures you need to take to protect your team members and your business
Your disciplinary policy is crucial to fostering the right environment for your business and safeguarding your employee’s rights. It also sets our the rules you need to follow in case of a disciplinary procedure or a dismissal to be in line with UK employment law. These are complicated procedures when you don’t have an HR training, so read on to find out step-by-step guidance.
Get a basic understanding of what elements need to go into a disciplinary policy
Download a free disciplinary policy template crafted by HR experts
Understand all the steps you need to take to have a complete and legally compliant disciplinary procedure
Download a free disciplinary procedure template
Grievances are a cause for a complaint or unfair treatment that a team member might bring to you or to their superior.
You must have a procedure and an HR policy in place to deal with these scenarios, as they could lead you to an employment tribunal if you’re not careful. Remember that small businesses can’t often afford these challenges, so don’t take the risk of going under and have a strong policy in place.
Understand what a grievance policy should be made of and how to implement a grievance procedure
Download a grievance policy template for free
Help protect your business with this mandatory policy
This particular policy is very important when it comes to dealing with supporting the health and wellbeing of your team members, whilst maintaining good attendance and productivity levels across your business.
As a small business, you’ll also have a higher workload, so it’s important you protect your productivity levels from overbearing absences.
Understand how to deal with sickness and absences at your business
Download a free sickness and absence policy template
Get information about statutory sick pay, company sick pay, return to work interviews, medical report, long term sickness, meetings procedure and appeal
Every team member working for you is entitled to some time off – that’s where a holiday policy comes in handy to establish a few rules around when and how to take time off.
In our guide, you can expect to hear about holiday allowance and entitlement, time off carry over, accrued holidays, restricted periods of holidays, time off overlap and when it’s time to take action for disrespecting these rules.
Get a complete guide written by one of our HR experts to build your annual leave policy
Download our annual leave policy template for free
Have a look at the 8 mandatory sections your annual leave policy should always include
A data protection policy not only helps you comply with data protection law and follow good practices, but it’s also a great way to protect your team members, customers and partners. All in all, your data protection policy will ensure transparency when it comes to storage and usage of individuals’ data as well as show you’re protected against data breaches. It’s crucial for any business, but even more if you’re starting out or if you have limited resources.
Understand all the essential elements included in a data protection policy
Download a free data protection policy template for your business
Protect your business from data breach with a policy that leaves nothing behind
Make sure your company is legally compliant and get HR off your plate for good.
Supporting your team’s mental health is super important if you want to avoid situations such as depression and burnout – especially in a small business where cadence can be quite hectic, and people often end up overworked. Your role as an employer is to safeguard your employee’s mental health, and that’s where a policy can be useful. We’ve shared what we’ve put in place at Charlie during the early days.
Find out how a small business can support mental health with limited budget
Download our mental health policy document
UndHave a look at the data we shared in 2020 regarding mental health erstand why having an equal opportunities policy for your business is crucial
Flexible working is no longer a perk, it’s a right your employees have as soon as they start at your company, so perhaps it’s a good idea to put a flexible working policy in place. Depending on the needs of your company, your policy might be different from others, but it may be a good idea to see what a small business does to tackle flexible working and get inspiration from it.
Understand the rights of your employees and how you can support them
Download a free flexible working policy template
Get inspiration and tips for how we did it at Charlie as a small business
A new policy that has stuck around in the world of HR is giving team members the day off for their birthday. It can be a good trick up your sleeve when it comes to offering extra benefits for your employees, especially if you are a small business with limited resources.
Understand how different businesses deal with birthday leave policy
Find out whether it’s worth implement a birthday leave policy for your business
Download a birthday leave policy template for free
It may sound similar to the equal opportunities policy, but the diversity and inclusion policy, also called DE&I highlights different aspects of your company’s efforts towards building a welcoming and inclusive workplace. Your business should aim to be as inclusive as possible, as getting different perspectives and having various experiences across your business will allow it to flourish.
Understand what the top pillars of DE&I are and how to build your policy
Download a free DE&I policy template
Small businesses can make do with the three mandatory policies required by UK law which are a grievance policy, a disciplinary policy and a health and safety policy.
However, it’s quite difficult to operate with juste these HR policies in place, so we recommend small businesses (even if it’s just two people) to create more than just three.
On top of the HR policies required by UK law, you can start by adding the following: an annual leave policy, a sickness and absence policy, and a data protection policy.
You can then choose to add more policies into the fold when you feel comfortable. Some examples are a mental health policy, a flexible working policy, a birthday leave policy or a diversity and inclusion policy.
At a small organisation like the one we run at Charlie, it's crucial to have HR policies in place for several reasons:
Complying with health and safety regulations matters to your small business, especially if you want to avoid expensive fines along the way and if you care about the well-being of your employees.
Regardless of what you think you’re doing right, there are rules to follow depending on the industry and the role your team members have – so that’s when having a policy in place will help. Just read our guide to find out more or download our template.
Remain compliant by having all the steps for health and safety in place depending on your industry
Download a generic health and safety policy template
Understand the measures you need to take to protect your team members and your business
Your disciplinary policy is crucial to fostering the right environment for your business and safeguarding your employee’s rights. It also sets our the rules you need to follow in case of a disciplinary procedure or a dismissal to be in line with UK employment law. These are complicated procedures when you don’t have an HR training, so read on to find out step-by-step guidance.
Get a basic understanding of what elements need to go into a disciplinary policy
Download a free disciplinary policy template crafted by HR experts
Understand all the steps you need to take to have a complete and legally compliant disciplinary procedure
Download a free disciplinary procedure template
Grievances are a cause for a complaint or unfair treatment that a team member might bring to you or to their superior.
You must have a procedure and an HR policy in place to deal with these scenarios, as they could lead you to an employment tribunal if you’re not careful. Remember that small businesses can’t often afford these challenges, so don’t take the risk of going under and have a strong policy in place.
Understand what a grievance policy should be made of and how to implement a grievance procedure
Download a grievance policy template for free
Help protect your business with this mandatory policy
This particular policy is very important when it comes to dealing with supporting the health and wellbeing of your team members, whilst maintaining good attendance and productivity levels across your business.
As a small business, you’ll also have a higher workload, so it’s important you protect your productivity levels from overbearing absences.
Understand how to deal with sickness and absences at your business
Download a free sickness and absence policy template
Get information about statutory sick pay, company sick pay, return to work interviews, medical report, long term sickness, meetings procedure and appeal
Every team member working for you is entitled to some time off – that’s where a holiday policy comes in handy to establish a few rules around when and how to take time off.
In our guide, you can expect to hear about holiday allowance and entitlement, time off carry over, accrued holidays, restricted periods of holidays, time off overlap and when it’s time to take action for disrespecting these rules.
Get a complete guide written by one of our HR experts to build your annual leave policy
Download our annual leave policy template for free
Have a look at the 8 mandatory sections your annual leave policy should always include
A data protection policy not only helps you comply with data protection law and follow good practices, but it’s also a great way to protect your team members, customers and partners. All in all, your data protection policy will ensure transparency when it comes to storage and usage of individuals’ data as well as show you’re protected against data breaches. It’s crucial for any business, but even more if you’re starting out or if you have limited resources.
Understand all the essential elements included in a data protection policy
Download a free data protection policy template for your business
Protect your business from data breach with a policy that leaves nothing behind
Another aspect of HR policies you shouldn’t leave behind is having procedures in place to spot and tackle bullying and harassment at work. Whether it’s an employee, a client or third parties, your bullying and harassment policy should cover everyone. Harassment can come in multiple forms such as sexually suggestive material, racial comments, and exclusion among many others. These are just examples, but everything is covered in our bullying and harassment policy guide.
Understand what bullying and harassment are, why and how you should protect your team from it
Download a free bullying and harassment policy template for your business
Make sure your company is legally compliant and get HR off your plate for good.
Flexible working is no longer a perk, it’s a right your employees have as soon as they start at your company, so perhaps it’s a good idea to put a flexible working policy in place. Depending on the needs of your company, your policy might be different from others, but it may be a good idea to see what a small business does to tackle flexible working and get inspiration from it.
Understand the rights of your employees and how you can support them
Download a free flexible working policy template
Get inspiration and tips for how we did it at Charlie as a small business
A new policy that has stuck around in the world of HR is giving team members the day off for their birthday. It can be a good trick up your sleeve when it comes to offering extra benefits for your employees, especially if you are a small business with limited resources.
Understand how different businesses deal with birthday leave policy
Find out whether it’s worth implement a birthday leave policy for your business
Download a birthday leave policy template for free
It may sound similar to the equal opportunities policy, but the diversity and inclusion policy, also called DE&I highlights different aspects of your company’s efforts towards building a welcoming and inclusive workplace. Your business should aim to be as inclusive as possible, as getting different perspectives and having various experiences across your business will allow it to flourish.
Understand what the top pillars of DE&I are and how to build your policy
Download a free DE&I policy template
Hybrid working has been the talk of the town in the last few years: a perfect combination of getting the opportunity to work remotely as well as in the office. At Charlie, we’re very proud of the hybrid working policy we’ve got in place and that’s why we thought sharing our experience would help others. Not to mention that creating a hybrid working policy will be a great way to maintain the flexibility your team members enjoy.
Understand the difference between hybrid working and other types of flexible working
Download a free hybrid working policy template on how to describe the accident
Help your business decide whether hybrid working could be a good fit
A recruitment policy can be super helpful when you’re boosting your hiring, as it sets out the standards for the company when it comes to best hiring practices. A policy will ensure people follow the same hiring standards, and hire everyone the same way, reinforcing fairness and removing bias as much as possible.
Find out what a recruitment policy is and what it should include
Download a free policy template
Understand the advantages of a recruitment policy for your business
All businesses would be better off having this policy in their handbook as it will prevent unfair discrimination across your organisation. Following the UK Equality Act of 2010, although this policy is not mandatory, it is now unlawful to discriminate against someone in the workplace due to their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion or disability, so make sure you have the right processes in place if that ever happens.
Make the most out of your equal opportunities policy in this guide
Download a free equal opportunities policy template
Understand why having an equal opportunities policy for your business is crucial
Complying with health and safety regulations matters to your small business, especially if you want to avoid expensive fines along the way and if you care about the well-being of your employees.
Regardless of what you think you’re doing right, there are rules to follow depending on the industry and the role your team members have – so that’s when having a policy in place will help. Just read our guide to find out more or download our template.
Remain compliant by having all the steps for health and safety in place depending on your industry
Download a generic health and safety policy template
Understand the measures you need to take to protect your team members and your business
Your disciplinary policy is crucial to fostering the right environment for your business and safeguarding your employee’s rights. It also sets our the rules you need to follow in case of a disciplinary procedure or a dismissal to be in line with UK employment law. These are complicated procedures when you don’t have an HR training, so read on to find out step-by-step guidance.
Get a basic understanding of what elements need to go into a disciplinary policy
Download a free disciplinary policy template crafted by HR experts
Understand all the steps you need to take to have a complete and legally compliant disciplinary procedure
Download a free disciplinary procedure template
Grievances are a cause for a complaint or unfair treatment that a team member might bring to you or to their superior.
You must have a procedure and an HR policy in place to deal with these scenarios, as they could lead you to an employment tribunal if you’re not careful. Remember that small businesses can’t often afford these challenges, so don’t take the risk of going under and have a strong policy in place.
Understand what a grievance policy should be made of and how to implement a grievance procedure
Download a grievance policy template for free
Help protect your business with this mandatory policy
This particular policy is very important when it comes to dealing with supporting the health and wellbeing of your team members, whilst maintaining good attendance and productivity levels across your business.
As a small business, you’ll also have a higher workload, so it’s important you protect your productivity levels from overbearing absences.
Understand how to deal with sickness and absences at your business
Download a free sickness and absence policy template
Get information about statutory sick pay, company sick pay, return to work interviews, medical report, long term sickness, meetings procedure and appeal
Every team member working for you is entitled to some time off – that’s where a holiday policy comes in handy to establish a few rules around when and how to take time off.
In our guide, you can expect to hear about holiday allowance and entitlement, time off carry over, accrued holidays, restricted periods of holidays, time off overlap and when it’s time to take action for disrespecting these rules.
Get a complete guide written by one of our HR experts to build your annual leave policy
Download our annual leave policy template for free
Have a look at the 8 mandatory sections your annual leave policy should always include
A data protection policy not only helps you comply with data protection law and follow good practices, but it’s also a great way to protect your team members, customers and partners. All in all, your data protection policy will ensure transparency when it comes to storage and usage of individuals’ data as well as show you’re protected against data breaches. It’s crucial for any business, but even more if you’re starting out or if you have limited resources.
Understand all the essential elements included in a data protection policy
Download a free data protection policy template for your business
Protect your business from data breach with a policy that leaves nothing behind
Another aspect of HR policies you shouldn’t leave behind is having procedures in place to spot and tackle bullying and harassment at work. Whether it’s an employee, a client or third parties, your bullying and harassment policy should cover everyone. Harassment can come in multiple forms such as sexually suggestive material, racial comments, and exclusion among many others. These are just examples, but everything is covered in our bullying and harassment policy guide.
Understand what bullying and harassment are, why and how you should protect your team from it
Download a free bullying and harassment policy template for your business
Getting people to show up to work might just seem like an easy concept, and you should trust your team to be able to do it. However, there can be some mitigating circumstances to not being able to show up to work. To make sure there are clear rules around it, have an attendance policy at the ready, to state your standards as well as the scope of attendance for your business.
Get the basis to create your own attendance policy
Download a free attendance policy template for your business
Get advice from an HR expert on the subject
All businesses would be better off having this policy in their handbook as it will prevent unfair discrimination across your organisation. Following the UK Equality Act of 2010, although this policy is not mandatory, it is now unlawful to discriminate against someone in the workplace due to their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion or disability, so make sure you have the right processes in place if that ever happens.
Make the most out of your equal opportunities policy in this guide
Download a free equal opportunities policy template
Understand why having an equal opportunities policy for your business is crucial
A recruitment policy can be super helpful when you’re boosting your hiring, as it sets out the standards for the company when it comes to best hiring practices. A policy will ensure people follow the same hiring standards, and hire everyone the same way, reinforcing fairness and removing bias as much as possible.
Find out what a recruitment policy is and what it should include
Download a free policy template
Understand the advantages of a recruitment policy for your business
It may sound similar to the equal opportunities policy, but the diversity and inclusion policy, also called DE&I highlights different aspects of your company’s efforts towards building a welcoming and inclusive workplace. Your business should aim to be as inclusive as possible, as getting different perspectives and having various experiences across your business will allow it to flourish.
Understand what the top pillars of DE&I are and how to build your policy
Download a free DE&I policy template
Make sure your company is legally compliant and get HR off your plate for good.
Flexible working is no longer a perk, it’s a right your employees have as soon as they start at your company, so perhaps it’s a good idea to put a flexible working policy in place. Depending on the needs of your company, your policy might be different from others, but it may be a good idea to see what a small business does to tackle flexible working and get inspiration from it.
Understand the rights of your employees and how you can support them
Download a free flexible working policy template
Get inspiration and tips for how we did it at Charlie as a small business
A new policy that has stuck around in the world of HR is giving team members the day off for their birthday. It can be a good trick up your sleeve when it comes to offering extra benefits for your employees, especially if you are a small business with limited resources.
Understand how different businesses deal with birthday leave policy
Find out whether it’s worth implement a birthday leave policy for your business
Download a birthday leave policy template for free
Hybrid working has been the talk of the town in the last few years: a perfect combination of getting the opportunity to work remotely as well as in the office. At Charlie, we’re very proud of the hybrid working policy we’ve got in place and that’s why we thought sharing our experience would help others. Not to mention that creating a hybrid working policy will be a great way to maintain the flexibility your team members enjoy.
Understand the difference between hybrid working and other types of flexible working
Download a free hybrid working policy template on how to describe the accident
Help your business decide whether hybrid working could be a good fit
The use of mobile phones in the workplace can be very damaging, especially if you’re working with confidential information from your clients. Having a mobile phone policy, if you work in such an environment, or if you have productivity concerns, could be a good idea in the long run.
Understand how to increase productivity and protect your business from data breach
Download a free mobile phone policy template
A lot of bank holidays are based on religious traditions that stem from English history, however, the UK is a very diverse country and your business probably is as well – with a flexible bank holiday policy you can make everyone feel included, and not force people to take time off on a bank holiday that has no meaning to them.
Find out the pros and cons of a bank holiday policy
Download a free bank holiday policy template
A menopause policy might come in handy to support women in the workplace. It should be about what your commitment to employees is when supporting them through this difficult time of their lives.
Understand how a menopause policy can contribute to your DE&I goals
Download a free menopause policy template
Create a policy that will put you at the forefront of forward-thinking employers
Some employees, due to the nature of their job, are expected to work by themselves and sometimes outside of normal working hours. So how do you take care of them and how do you apply the same level of care to their job? By putting together a lone working policy.
Understand what can qualify as lone working
Download a free lone worker policy template
Writing HR policies can be a challenge for people without any HR experience. As someone juggling other responsibilities on top of HR, you might be familiar with the feeling of uncertainty that can arise from crafting HR documents: is this document compliant? Have I worded this correctly?
As a CPID-qualified HR expert, my role involves creating HR policies for small businesses and understanding their unique set of circumstances to make it come across in writing.
While it's not feasible for everyone to write HR policies with the same level of expertise, there is, however, ways around it.
Just remember that it may be a good idea to get an HR professional to review your policies: the wrong wording could put your company in jeopardy and send you to employment law tribunals, which would be dramatic for a small business like yours.
But if you’re determined to do this or if you don’t have the resources to have an HR professional look at your policies, I’ve put together some guidelines that you can follow:
Make sure your company is legally compliant and get HR off your plate for good.
An HR policy is a written document that helps outline guidance regarding issues and situations at a company.
An HR policy does several things:
It really depends on the size of the company and who is responsible for HR. We’ve put some examples below of who can can have this responsibility depending on the size of your business:
The HR policies required by UK employment law are:
Once you’ve got all this covered, you’re safe. Be sure to have these in place or you could face a fine.
HR policies are intrinsically linked to HR procedures and HR strategy, but they're not exactly the same. They are your HR foundations and help you understand what to do in specific HR contexts and regarding employee issues.
HR procedures are step-by-step documents to help managers and HR personnel address specific situations such as disciplinary meetings, written warnings, etc.
An HR strategy, on the other hand, gives the company an overarching goal in the long run – that can be expansion, company culture, working environment, etc.
Of course, here’s a bunch of links to helpful resources that you can have a look to enhance your knowledge: