Company Policies and Employment Law

In order for an employer to effectively manage their workforce, it’s essential for the right employment policies to be established. These policies must comply with employer employment law, but should also be customized to meet the needs of each workplace. Ideally, an employer should be able to anticipate the type of problems that are likely to come up in their particular business, and draft their employment policies so that these problems are addressed.

The policies drawn up should cover all of the most common human resource issues, so that the employer has a fail-safe way of dealing with incidents, which is not only fair, but more importantly, consistent. Employer employment law requires certain policies; for instance, an employer has to have written disciplinary and grievance procedures and rules, and as well as a health and safety policy. Businesses that are found to not have these policies in place could end up facing serious legal issues later down the line. In addition to this, it’s a good idea for employers to draw up equal opportunities and data protection policies.

An email and internet usage policy is another one which has become increasingly important in recent years, as more and more company employees carry out much of their work on computers. The idea behind this type of policy is to make sure that staff members use the internet effectively, without wasting their time on social networking websites and generally surfing the internet. Whilst the type of internet policy an employer draws up will depend on what business they are in, and how much their employees use the net, all policies of this kind should incorporate rules which help to minimize security risks – for instance, specifying that only employees with authorization are allowed to download software.

For an employer, employment law does also come into play when drafting internet and email usage policies, as these policies need to address possible legal risks. The policy should ensure that staff members do not use social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to defame or harass anyone – if this occurs, the employer or the company as a whole could be considered to be liable for this offence. Employees should be made aware of the restrictions which an employer imposes on internet usage – ideally, they should be provided with a copy of the policy on paper – as well as potential consequences of failing to comply.