Other business rules and procedures
Contents
Introduction
Having a set of written business rules and procedures (like disciplinary procedures), helps ensure that staff receive equal and fair treatment. These rules and procedures are sometimes referred to as policies.
They should be easy to understand and easily accessible by staff - ideally contained in one document (such as a staff/employee handbook) or digitally in a single computer folder.
Staff contracts should state that they must be followed.
When administering the rules and procedures, employers must ensure that reasonable adjustments are made for disabled staff.
The sections in this article give examples of the subject matter that rules should cover for a typical business and example wording.
Examples of business rules
A business could potentially have a larger number of rules/policies on a range of topics. It will largely depend on the size and nature of the business, but all of the following are common examples:
- How to qualify and take various types of statutory family leave (e.g. maternity leave, paternity leave, etc)
- Sickness notification
- Use and return of business equipment
- Use of electronic communications (e.g. phone, internet, email)
- Social media use
- Dress code
- Alcohol, drugs, smoking
- Data protection
- Health & Safety
- Ethics, conduct and bribery
- Expenses
- Anti-harassment and bullying
- Flexible working application procedure
- Salary reviews
- Performance management
- Holidays
- Training
- Personal relationships at work
- Intellectual property and confidentiality