Writing Employment Contracts and Handbooks

Legally your employees need a contract of employment within 8 weeks of starting.  There are some common areas yet many employers need additional clauses to protect their business.   Sure, you can pull contracts and clauses off the website, but they may not entirely suit your purpose and are only as good as what you know.  We know from experience what questions to ask in which industry circumstances and once you have explained what you need to protect your business you will then have the template for future recruits.

We strongly recommend that you have a staff handbook to codify your operating principles particularly around absence and use of IT.  Legally employees need to understand how the discipline and grievance procedures work as well.  Training in understanding these policies, and open access to them, helps avoid misunderstandings later.