Building a strong foundation for your business – HR Handbook

Date posted: 17th June 2020

The construction industry is a fast paced, constantly changing world. Combine that with the Coronavirus pandemic that has taken over the world, and it makes for a very unpredictable and uncertain business landscape.

With this in mind, it’s crucial that your business is ‘built on strong foundations’ not just to survive during this time, but to thrive. The core foundations in operating a successful business in the construction industry is the people. Without good people, most businesses would not exist. A good group of individuals that make up a hard working and ambitious team is worth its weight in gold.  

To reach goals and deadlines, it is important that the people that make up your team understand their roles and the company rules. The best way of doing this is through a Contract of Employment and an Employee Handbook. 

These outline the contractual obligations of both the business and the employee as well as providing details on key HR policies so that everyone is on the same page. So this may sound boring, but taking the time to get the basics right when it comes to preparation will save you a lot of time and money when issues arise.

The key benefits of having a Contract of Employment and Employee Handbook in place are:

Save money!

• Reduce the amount of overtime paid
• Reduced the amount of holiday pay
• Have control over when staff can take their holidays, so they are not taking holidays when they are required to work
• Protect the reputation of your business through appropriate policies

Reduces risk

• Reduce the risk of potential future claims from employees
•  Reduce the risk of any party having grounds for legal action down the line
• Eliminate grey areas and uncertainty so your team know and understand what is required from them during difficult times

Sets the standard and saves time

• Reduced time spent reinforcing rules and explaining approaches to work
• All employees know what is required from them in regard to performance and behaviour. There are no grey areas or urgent requirements to ask questions

Protects your sensitive information and your customers

• A confidentiality clause will ensure sensitive information, which could be valuable to competitors is not leaked
• Employees will feel safe, respected and protected if issues arise 
• Should there be a case where an employee wishes to compete with you regarding an HR problem, they will not be able to use sensitive information against you

It helps your Managers manage

• A good Employee handbook gives your managers all the tools they need to deal with tricky workplace situations 
• Having pre-agreed rules means managers do not waste time deciding how to respond to a situation.
•  Employees can read the Employee Handbook and learn what the procedure entails.

Increased productivity

• In your Employee Handbook, you can lay down the rules to ensure that employees’ productivity is high. E.g – a policy on social media usage, you can make it clear that excessive social media use during working hours will be treated as misconduct. 
• If employees know they can face disciplinary action, it can act as a deterrent and ensure they are focusing on their work.
• Once again, grey areas are eliminated and employees know what to expect. 

Kingswood Group

So that’s it! 

Simply by putting into place and keeping your contracts of employment and staff handbook up to date you can gain all of the above benefits for your business. 

If you require more information or would like to learn how to go about putting measures like this into place, then make sure you contact our experienced and friendly team here at Kingswood Group by clicking here.