Back to Basics - New Employees
We often get calls into the helpline requesting basic information on HR/Employment Law queries like how to deal with new starters or when should an employer invoke the disciplinary procedures, so we will look at some basic HR topics in a series of blogs starting today with new employees.
New Employees
• A new employee is required by law, under the Unfair Dismissal Act, to receive a copy of the company’s ‘Dismissal Procedures’, which are usually contained in the ‘Disciplinary/Grievance Procedures’ of the Staff or Company Handbook, within 28 days of starting work with the company.
• Under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 the employer is obliged to furnish new employees within 2 months of starting, with a ‘Written Statement of ‘certain’ terms and conditions’ of their employment, also known as an ‘Employment Contract’.
• The new GDPR regulations specify that employers must provide their employees with information about what personal data they hold on them, for what purpose and how it was collected, who it may be shared with, what security measures are in place to keep it safe and what the employee’s rights are as well as other specific requirements. This is called an ‘Employee Privacy Policy’ or ‘Employee Privacy Notice’ and should be given to the employee as an addendum to their Employment Contract.
Based on these 3 pieces of legislation it would be best practice to provide your new starter with their Employment Contract, Privacy Policy and Staff/Company Handbook on their first day of work, if not before it. An employer can be fined up to 4 weeks pay for not providing the employee with their ‘Written Statement of Terms and Conditions of Employment’ within the 2 month timeframe, so it is best to get into the habit of furnishing the documents as soon as possible.
There is no requirement for a signature from the employee on any of these documents; however it would be prudent of an employer to request a signature from the employee or at least some form of acknowledgement or proof of the employee receiving the documents.
The new Employment Bill 2017, yet to be introduced, stipulates that a new employee should receive some details of their terms of employment within 5 days of starting with a company but it is yet to be seen whether this aspect of the Bill will get the go ahead.
Bright Contracts offers employers a simple and user-friendly system which enables them to easily create and customize all of these documents and keep an electronic record on file. To download a Free Trial click here or book an online Demo of the Bright Contracts software.
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GDPR deadline gone - So what now?
If you haven’t already updated existing policies for GDPR or if you haven’t started to look at the implication of the new regulations within your organization, you still have time. GDPR compliance will be an on-going process and therefore will need to be monitored and updated on a regular basis – it will not be just a one-off exercise, so it’s certainly not too late to make a start on those updates to get you on the road towards compliance.
The first thing you should consider is to create an inventory of all the personal data you currently store and/or process, whether that be data belonging to employees, customers or suppliers. This inventory will go a long way in helping you, as you will be able to garner from it any areas that need updating or creation of new procedures to help with meeting the GDPR requirements.
• Employee Privacy Policy - If you have employee’s, does the existing contract detail what data you process on them, with whom and what they’re rights are in relation to that data? If not then you would need to create an Employee Privacy Policy.
• Clean Desk Policy – Do you operate a Clean desk Policy? Whereby data belonging to customers or suppliers is not left out on desks overnight where cleaners/security staff may have access to them.
• Data Processor Agreement - Do you share any employee information with your accountant or pension provider? If so do you have a valid or up to date contract or letter of engagement covering the new GDPR stipulations between data controllers and data processor’s?
Realistically it will be difficult for any organization to ever be fully compliant with GDPR; however once you are not ignoring your obligations under the new rules and have or are in the process of taking steps towards demonstrating compliance this should be sufficient if you ever face a Data Protection inspection.
If you require further guidance on GDPR please see our dedicated support section on our website where you can find on-demand GDPR webinars, FAQ’s and template documents like a Data Processor Agreement.
Bright Contracts has also recently been upgraded to include a new Employee Privacy Policy feature whereby you can tick off another box to prove compliance under the new GDPR regulations. Download a free trial of Bright Contracts here. Book a free online Demo of the software.
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