Contracts & Employee Handbooks

Contracts and handbooks can’t manage people, but they help you and your managers manage consistently and within a framework that complies with current legislation. If you are complying with current legislation, you have fewer sleepless nights as an employer worrying that you are going to find yourself in an employment tribunal.

A contract of employment is a legally binding agreement between you, the employer, and your employee. Since 6 April 2020, as the employer, you are required by law to provide a comprehensive list of written information to an employee on day 1 of their employment. If you don’t comply with this, and your employee succeeds in making a claim to an employment tribunal that involves a breach of this obligation, you can expect to be ordered to pay the employee between 2 and 4 weeks’ pay compensation.

A handbook of policies helps you explain how you will apply the rules in your organisation and define your expectations for your employees. If you can demonstrate that you’ve provided your employees with a set of rules and that they’ve read and understood their rules, it is easier to hold employees accountable when they break the rules. They knew what was expected of them and what could happen if they don’t follow the rules.

It's easy to write a contract of employment isn’t it? There’s loads of them on the internet! There’s a reason why advice on the internet is free, it’s not necessarily backed up by knowledge of current legislation and it most definitely won’t be written in a way that specifically protects your business.

As a client of Metis HR you will receive copies of bespoke contracts of employment, policies and procedures designed specifically to meet your needs of your organisation. Nothing comes just “off the shelf” to Metis HR clients, everything is tailored to your needs.