An employment relationship is in many ways no different from a personal relationship and the key to any successful relationship is communication.

In the employment setting, it is absolutely essential that every employee understands what is expected of him or her. By doing so, it dramatically reduces the risk of any misunderstanding as to the employee’s obligations towards the employer. The employer also has reciprocal obligations towards his or her employees to ensure that each employee is informed of its legal rights and benefits.

The legal requirements

The Employment Rights Act 1996 provides that all employers, irrespective of their size, must provide basic particulars of employment to each employee within two months of the commencement of their employment.

In October 2004, new statutory obligations will come into force governing disciplinary and grievance procedures. They set out basic procedures to which all employers must adhere. These new regulations will apply irrespective of whether an employee has one year’s continuous employment. Employees will be obliged to follow specific steps in order to raise a grievance. The new procedures may be different to those already in place in your companies. Failure by the company to comply with the disciplinary procedures will amount to a breach of contract and will result in a dismissal being automatically unfair.

Best practice

Rather than merely comply with this basic minimum requirement, we advise our clients to provide employees with a detailed contract and Handbook setting out all of the policies and procedures which will govern the employment relationship including absence procedures, email policy and post-employment obligations, which are not themselves legal requirements.

Once you have contractual documentation with which you are satisfied, it must not be placed in a drawer or file and forgotten about. The employment contract should be a living document that evolves as the employment relationship develops. It must also continue to comply with the ever-changing legislation.

What can we do for you?

At Synergy Employment Law, we can help you create your employment contracts and workplace policies to satisfy all the requirements of your business.

If you already have contractual documentation, for a fixed fee, we can review your existing contracts and policies to check that they incorporate all of the recent legislative changes as well as to check that they adequately protect your business and achieve what you expect them to achieve.

Financial Incentives and Bonus Plans

Staff retention is one of the key business objectives for many of our clients. Retaining and keeping good staff motivated has an impact on the bottom line of your business. Bonuses and incentive schemes are an important part of this process.

What can we do for you?

We can help you create tax efficient benefit schemes that will not only keep your staff incentivised, but will help you to minimise the cost implications of introducing such schemes. We can also advise on discretionary bonus programmes and assist you in taking steps to minimise the risk of such programmes becoming contractual entitlements.