Contracts and Handbooks

Your employees’ rights include having access to certain terms and conditions of employment from day one.  

Since 6 April 2020, organisations have been legally obliged to provide employees and workers with more extensive information in their written statement of the particulars of employment. The law requires that certain terms are set out within that statement, and it must now be provided to people on or before their first day.

Clarity and reassurance for you and your people

Providing this statement ensures legal compliance and gives new employees and workers written confirmation of their rights and obligations from the outset. It’s also advisable to have tailored, up-to-date contracts in place for everyone on the payroll.

Contracts detail the full range of rights and obligations that apply between you and your workforce, and set out the administrative and legal processes required if disputes arise. They also provide reassurance for all parties that there are procedures in place for resolving issues fairly and efficiently.

Contracts can be particularly important for more senior employees who may have access to confidential information and potential influence over colleagues and customers.

Providing the procedural detail and the bigger picture

While contracts are detailed and specific to a role, a handbook or separate policy and procedure booklet sets out how you deal with broader HR and employment issues. Such policies and procedures can cover a wide range of matters, such as disciplinary and grievance issues, use of social media, IT security, sickness, family leave, and so on – and may be tailored to your specific business or sector. It’s a legal requirement to have certain policies in place, while others are discretionary, so please ask us if you’re unsure – or see our FAQs for more information.

Contracts and handbooks expertise you can rely on

We can work with you to put in place new contracts and handbooks from scratch. We can also work with your existing documents, to review and update them.

If there are terms and conditions within the contracts or policies that you want to change, we can support you to make sure you follow the correct processes and don’t inadvertently expose yourself to a claim.

We’ve helped countless clients protect themselves and their workforce with contracts of employment and policy handbooks. Some examples of our contracts and handbooks expertise include:

• issuing new policies for a national retailer’s contractual staff handbook
• implementing an entire staff handbook for a local charity
• preparing contracts of employment and, in conjunction with our Real Estate team, accompanying service occupancy agreements for those with accommodation linked to their work
• drafting protective clauses for senior staff of an international mining organisation
• preparing directors’ service agreements for a new tech company
• drafting senior contracts – including tailored post-termination restrictive covenants and retention bonuses – for key employees in a large international company
• drafting bespoke clauses for a contract and handbook for a charitable organisation, to include equality and diversity clauses and a car/driving clause and policy
• creating a client-specific bonus clause for the sales team of a food and drink business.