Human Resources (HR) plays a critical role in ensuring that organisations adhere to various laws and regulations. For many businesses, partnering with an outsourced HR provider like HR Solutions can be an effective way to manage this complex task. Here’s how HR contributes to compliance:
Understanding and Implementing Employment Laws
HR professionals stay up to date with the latest employment laws and regulations as well as the latest trends and best practices in human resource management. All in all, this ensures that clients have company policies, employee handbooks and contracts of employment that are legally compliant, practical to use, and commercially robust. This means, you can be provided with key employment documentation that helps to protect your business from legal claims.
Creating and Enforcing Policies
Outsourced HR services help support your business to develop and enforce company policies covering key employment areas such as workplace behaviour, employee relations (absence, performance, disciplinary and grievance) as well as comply with data protection rules, build an inclusive workplace culture through equal opportunity, and employee rights.
Fundamental to enforcing policies, and protecting your business from risk, is the communication and training of your employment policies and procedures. If you choose the right provider they should work with you to ensure that regular training and communication is carried out, ensuring that all your employees understand and adhere to these policies.
Record Keeping and Documentation
Accurate record-keeping is a key aspect of compliance. HR involves the processing and storing of personal data, including data that is considered to be ‘sensitive personal data’, like medical information. However, detailed records of employee information, training sessions, disciplinary actions, and other relevant activities is vital to the employment relationship because this documentation is crucial during audits or legal disputes, because it provides evidence that the organisation complies with the law.
Conducting Training and Education
Regular training sessions conducted by HR ensure that employees are aware of compliance requirements. Topics may include workplace safety, anti-harassment policies, data security, and ethical conduct. Well-informed employees are less likely to inadvertently violate regulations.
The training and education of your workforce, at all levels is fundamental to protecting the business from risk. Training is just one way in which you can build a defence when responding to tribunal claims. HR experts possess the practical experience and specialist knowledge to make training appropriate to your business, complaint with the many pieces of employment legislation and brings the latest industry best practices. Regular training sessions conducted by HR also ensures that employees are aware of their own obligation in complying with your policies and procedures, whether it is training on anti-harassment policies, disciplinary and grievances in the workplace, workplace safety, data security, and ethical conduct. Well-informed employees are less likely to inadvertently violate regulations.
Monitoring and Auditing
HR continuously monitors company practices to ensure ongoing legal compliance. This involves conducting internal audits, reviewing procedures, and assessing the effectiveness of current policies. Regular audits help identify potential areas of non-compliance, allowing for corrective actions before issues escalate. Your HR Consultant should work with you to thoroughly audit your people practices and provide you with recommendations that will reduce any risk from tribunal claims. Working with you, they can also help you to create a strategic people plan so that you can prioritise your actions.
Handling Employee Relations – Disciplinary and Grievances
Of all the different aspects of human resource management, disciplinary and grievance are probably the two main areas that will take up the most management time, whether it is dealing with persistent short-term absences, someone’s under performance, inappropriate behaviour in the workplace or workplace conflict. These are also the main reason for tribunal claims.
Handling disciplinary wrong, or not at all can have significant implications, in terms of claims of unfair or constructive dismissals, even breach of contract, and ignoring grievances or failing to thoroughly investigate also leads to constructive dismissal claims.
Your outsourced provider can play a crucial role in managing these issues by ensuring these complex processes are handled fairly, consistently and in line with your company policies and the law.
The effective handling of these issues helps to maintain a respectful and legally sound workplace environment.
Risk Management
HR proactively identifies and mitigates risks associated with non-compliance. This includes assessing potential vulnerabilities in current practices, staying ahead of regulatory changes, and implementing preventive measures. By managing these risks, HR protects the organisation from legal and financial fallout.
Conclusion
The role of HR in ensuring compliance is multifaceted and essential for the smooth operation of any organisation. For many SMEs, outsourcing HR functions offers a practical and efficient way to stay compliant. By leveraging the expertise of an outsourced HR team, businesses can navigate the complexities of compliance with confidence, ensuring a lawful and productive workplace.
For more insights into how HR Solutions can support your business in ensuring compliance, visit HR Solutions.
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For more insights into how HR Solutions can support your business in ensuring compliance, visit HR Solutions, or please get in contact here.
