Protect Your Business and Your Employees: A Guide

June 17 2020 - Protecting your business and your employees go hand-in-hand. There are many steps that you should take to make sure that your employees feel safe and comfortable within the workplace and that your business thrives for years to come. If you care about your employees' wellbeing and the future of your business, here are some top tips to help you to protect them.

Have a Succession Plan

A succession plan is vital to ensure that your business can remain successful upon your death and to check that your employees will not need to be made redundant if something happens to you. Your succession plan should include details of your successor, who may be a relative or one of your key employees. It should also include the appropriate documentation, such as your employee handbook. To make this plan legally binding, you need to update your will, which you can do by hiring local solicitors in your area. They can help you to write your documents and make sure that your wishes are heeded.

Know What to Do When a Key Worker Leaves

The skills of your employees can be vital to the success of your business. This means that you should know what to do if a key worker wants to leave your firm. For instance, if a key worker is breaking their contract by choosing to seek alternative employment, you may be able to take court action. On a daily basis, you can protect your company, and your remaining employees, from this by reviewing your company's team structure and ensuring that responsibilities are shared amongst your employees. You should also ensure that their contract prohibits them from sharing sensitive data and from creating competition for your brand.

Create Employment Contracts

To protect your business and your employees, you should https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2020/06/contract-of-employment-template-free-download/">create a mutually beneficial contract that lays out the terms of their employment. For instance, this should include the steps that they must take if they choose to leave your company.

Develop a Comprehensive Health and Safety Policy

To protect your business from legal action and to ensure that all of your employees are safe within the workplace, you should develop a comprehensive health and safety policy. This can also keep your business compliant with the law. Your health and safety policy should include advice on training procedures, as well as on the use of dangerous equipment. Additionally, the contract should include information about protective gear, in addition to guidance on the actions that should be taken if there is an injury in the workplace.

Make Fair Redundancies

By law, you must make sure that your redundancies are fair, especially if a staff member has been employed within your company for more than 2 years. The process that you must follow includes holding a meeting with staff about their potential redundancy, within which you should discuss why redundancies are happening and allow them to ask questions. You should also allow them to bring a trade union official or HR professional to these meetings to help them to feel well-represented in your discussion.

• More SME Articles