Attn: HR Professionals and Employment Lawyers

Brand new HR Policies for October 2024, compliant with all new laws on sexual harassment, holiday pay, flexible working, requests for predictable working patterns, and more...

INTRODUCING:

Up-to-date HR Policies from a practising Employment Law Barrister that you can rely on to be Concise, Easy to Follow and Legally Compliant

Isn’t it time you aligned yours with current legislation?

“Buy Daniel Barnett’s HR policies because all the hard work has been done for you already.”

Alison McRae

Are you a busy hr professional?

Here’s a quick question for you.

How confident is your knowledge of the following recent employment legislation updates:

The new rules on accruing and calculating holiday for casual and part-year workers
The new rules on requests for flexible working (including two requests a year, it becoming a Day One right, the formalities required during the application, and the shortened time period for dealing with flexible working requests)
Incoming laws requiring employers to deal with requests for predictable working patterns (including from agency workers)
Extensions to the rights of pregnant women AND other categories of employees to 'trump' others for alternative roles during redundancy exercises
The new right to carer's leave
And anything else you might have missed…?

I’m sure you’re already familiar with many of these changes in employment law.

But even if you have kept up-to-date, have your policies done likewise?

That’s the million-pound question….

Click here for pricing

For many organisations these changes, and probably many more, don’t feature in their HR policies. Or if they do, there’s a problem with them.

Often exclusions, omissions or mistakes are small

Occasionally they over-extend their reach.

Perhaps they result in an unworkable policy:

Or maybe, they’re a source of amusement

A policy that is inadequate, poorly understood or clumsily enforced can be a source of significant grief.

It might result in reputational damage to the organisation, a costly tribunal, expensive compensation awards…

… and a huge amount of work for you.

And that’s where it gets personal.

If you do get caught out by a policy that’s not fit for purpose, there’s a small but embarrassing dent in your own professional standing with your colleagues and the leadership team…

…all of which is preventable.

The trouble is, you’ll often only know how good your HR policies really are when they’re up against the situations and circumstances they’re intended to cover.

And I should know, because I’ve been a practising Employment Law Barrister for over 25 years.

My name is Daniel Barnett.

I am highly regarded for my employment and HR law expertise and am passionate about helping HR Professionals like you understand the law better to make your job easier for you.

I have appeared in many Court of Appeal and Employment Appeal Tribunal cases together with complex High Court employment litigation. I also appear regularly in employment tribunals up and down the country and I particularly enjoy sharing my experiences with the HR community..

My areas of work include:

unfair dismissal claims
whistleblowing and discrimination claims
collective redundancy disputes
restrictive covenant cases
and employees who misuse their employer's confidential information

My employer clients include a member of the Royal Family, several international airlines, a global leisure industry company and telecommunications company, as well as many hundreds of SMEs.

I have sat on various Bar Council committees and am a member of the Staff Committee and Bar Representation Committees of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn.

I’m also called on regularly to comment on television and radio on current legal issues. I am the presenter of the LBC Legal Hour, broadcasting every Saturday evening at 9pm across the UK, in which I answer legal questions from LBC callers. I am well known for my forthright, honest and clear answers to even the most challenging questions.

I am the author or co-author of eighteen books, including the highly regarded Handbook on Employment Law.

I bring all of that experience to bear when helping HR professionals develop a workable set of HR policies for their organisation.

Based on my extensive experience, here’s what I consider to be the gold standard for a suite of good HR policies.

For an HR professional to sleep soundly at night free from any concerns or worries, their HR policies (as a minimum) have to be:

Legally compliant
Up-to-date with current legislation
Integrated (meaning each policy complements and supports any related policies)

I’m sure you’ll agree with that.

But as we’ve found in organisations, that’s not usually the case...

Here’s the problem with many organisations’ HR Policies (maybe yours too)...

There’s a consistent problem we’ve seen over the many years we’ve been working with HR professionals.

It’s common in organisations both large and small (and everything in between).

In fact, it’s such a common phenomenon we’ve even developed a name for it.

We call it the 'Hotch-Potch HR Policy Problem'.

Why?

Well, it’s because the HR policies are usually an uncoordinated collection of documents from at least two or more of these sources:

An original set of old, probably now out of date, policies created by a previous HR professional no longer working for the organisation.
A partial set of 'newish' policies introduced by their replacement because they worked so well in their last company
Policies 'borrowed' from someone in the HR Manager’s network when new legislation is announced.
Cobbled-together policies from a free template downloaded from a website at the top of the google search for 'free hr policy template'
Outsourced policies created by an online source paid for from a shoestring budget (maybe even from Upwork or Fiverr!)

And that’s the problem.

At the very least this Hotch-Potch of Policies won’t be legally compliant, up-to-date or integrated.

But at worst…

…there’s more than just a problem…

….it’s likely to be a ticking tribunal time bomb.

It’s not a matter of IF something will upset the HR applecart to test your policies, but WHEN.

For many organisations these changes, and probably many more, don’t feature in their HR policies. Or if they do there’s a problem with them.

And if your organisation’s HR policies are not robust enough, that could result in a costly, expensive and time sucking tribunal.

Now if this resonates with you, recognise it’s not your fault.

You’ve got such an important job to do.

You’re pulled and stretched in so many different directions.

When you’re faced with a problem to solve, you’re likely to be the sort of person who strives to solve it quickly.

If you need to to fill a gap that’s appeared in your HR policy package, you’ll find a way of shoring it up quickly so you can get on with what you do best.

The challenge however is this:

Over time, your HR policies will drift further and further from the gold standard of being:

Legally compliant
Up-to-date
Integrated

It’s a precarious position to be in.

Now given the exhausting demands of your role, it’s unlikely you have the time to review your current policies, audit them for legislative compliance and update them where they fall short of the gold standard.

So let me take all that hassle away from you by introducing:

THE HR PLATINUM POLICY SUITE

Here’s what it consists of:

The Full 'Completely Compliant HR Policy Library' 2024

Fully audited and updated, there are 26 HR Policies that are:

Compact and concise, making them easy to implement.
Practical, with effective and efficient HR processes born from years of employment law experience.
Easy to read and understand by colleagues at every level of your business.
Comprehensive, covering the full range of tricky employment issues busy HR professionals have to deal with every day.
Fully legally compliant, having included every relevant employment legislation change since we first developed these in 2016
Developed and published by one of the UK’s leading employment law barristers.
Peer reviewed by some of the brightest legal minds in the profession.

Here’s what the policies cover:

Click any policy to see the detail…

01 - Recruitment Policy

How to avoid falling foul of discrimination laws so your recruitment is fair and lawful and that it leads to the right people being appointed to the right roles
How to prevent managers from exposing you to discriminatory hiring decisions that may potentially result in a costly and avoidable tribunal
Guidelines and measures to protect your organisation from hiring an inappropriate candidate to avoid the administrative (and emotional) burden of what happens when things go wrong.
And much more…

02 - Holiday Policy

How to keep all employees happy by ensuring holiday calculations and leave entitlements are clearly defined and understood by all.
Clear guidelines on how to request time off, how much employees will be paid and what happens if they are sick while on holiday.
Instructions on how to handle holiday entitlement for long term absence and what happens when an employee leaves the company.
Completely new section dealing with the right to pay 12.07% rolled-up holiday to part-year and irregular hour workers
And much more…

03 - Flexible Working Policy

A complete guide for dealing with requests by employees for flexible working patterns.
Simple to understand guidelines on how flexible working can be balanced to meet the needs of the organisation and ideal working conditions for employees.
How an employee can establish if they qualify for flexible working and what they need to do to apply.
How an organisation should deal with a flexible working request to avoid a potential employment tribunal if they deny the application.
Updated rules to reflect the new eligibility requirements and the shortened timeframe for employers to deal with the applications
And much more…

04 - Equal Opportunities Policy

How to get the absolute best out of a diverse workforce and create a positive working environment for all employees for the benefit of the organisation.
How to protect the organisation against discrimination claims and allegations of not treating people properly by creating a company wide understanding of how the law views discrimination.
How to enforce the policy and handle any breaches that may occur.
And much more…

05 - Drugs & Alcohol Policy

How to fulfil your legal duty to protect the health and safety of your workforce and any external individuals who come into contact with your organisation from individuals under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
How to implement screening for people who may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
How to legally enforce a search policy to establish suspected possession of drugs or alcohol by employees on company premises.
And much more…

06 - Wellbeing Policy

How to identify wellbeing issues, mitigate their effects, and support your people through difficult times, whether because of issues at home or at work so they stay engaged and absence rates are kept low.
How to lay out and perform your statutory duties to protect all employees who work for you from anything that may affect their wellbeing.
How to create a working environment that recognises and supports employees suffering from stress.
And much more…

07  - Menopause Policy

How to create an environment in which all your employees feel informed about the menopause and are comfortable and confident talking about its impact.
How to make sure all employees affected by the menopause feel understood, appreciated and valued.
How to avoid unnecessary attrition of a key section of experienced and valuable employees.
And much more…

08 - Maternity & Family Friendly Policy

A comprehensive and detailed policy covering procedures for all types of family-related leave and pay, including details of employees' statutory rights.
How to create a working environment that supports employee work life balance and honours and respects the importance of the family unit.
Clear guidance on attending antenatal appointments, what happens during maternity leave, maternity pay, returning to work, paternity leave, paternity pay and shared parental leave.
Dealing with the new right to Carer's leave
And much more…

09 - Homeworking Policy

How to apply for homeworking, and the things to take into account when considering employees’ requests.
What safeguards need to be in place and the practical arrangements that make homeworking a success.
Specific considerations for role suitability, setting up homeworking, managing homeworking, expenses, health and safety, security confidentiality and data protection and accessing employees’ homes.
And much more…

10  - Social Media Policy

A thorough policy that explains employee responsibilities when using social media, on your premises, while working for or representing your organisation, or in their own time.
Guidelines on how to protect your organisation’s reputation by ensuring appropriate and responsible use of social media by employees.
And much more…

11 - Harassment & Bullying Policy

How to provide a safe working environment for all employees free from harassment, bullying and intimidation.
Understanding the difference between harassment and bullying and how your organisation will deal with both.
The new positive duty to prevent sexual harassment (from October 2024).
Optional section on dealing with third party harassment.
And much more…

12 - Performance Improvement Policy

Detailed guidance on the step by step process for handling performance improvement issues.
How to ensure managers do not overlook or even ignore issues of poor performance so action can be taken immediately if it becomes an issue.
Performance improvement warnings, how to handle dismissal for poor performance and what rights employees have for appeal.
And much more…

13  - Absence Management Policy