Management, policies & procedures

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Legal requirements

As an employer, you have to have three policies in place by law:

  1. Health and safety policy ( if you have more than five employees)
  2. Disciplinary and dismissal policies
  3. Grievance policy

Guidance is available below.  Other policies are not legally required but are recommended. 

Health & safety policy

The law says that every business must have a policy for managing health and safety.  A health and safety policy sets out your general approach to health and safety.  It explains how you, as an employer will manage health and safety in your business. It should clearly say who does what, when and how.   

If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down. If you have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, but it is useful to do so.

You must share the policy, and any changes to it, with your employees.

The HSE provide further guidance on health and safety policy


Performance management

As an employer, the PCC needs to ensure that it has its own local management structure to provide day-to-day management. A suitable structure can include a sub-committee of the PCC comprising, for example of, one churchwarden and a couple of others including the Vicar/Rector who can make any routine decisions, so that if anything crops up which needs to be considered through appeal etc, an independent person can take the lead.

Appraisals (also known as Performance and Development Reviews) are formal reviews that take place on an annual or biannual basis and is a method by which the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. An appraisal is normally part of the formal performance management process. It requires both parties to prepare well, in advance of the meeting. Appraisal forms must be completed and logged on the employee’s personnel file. ACAS provide appraisal templates that you may wish to use. 

The appraisal aims to align the priorities of the appraisee with the goals and objectives of the parish (Mission Action Plan). By providing clearly defined individual objectives, the manager enables the employee to see how their achievements contribute to the parish’s success.

Many employees report that their appraisal, when done well is highly motivating. Appraisals are good for ongoing performance management and maintaining performance standards, reviewing longer-term performance achievements and correcting performance issues that are significant but do not present a major problem. It is also an opportunity for the employee to let you know of any larger issues that need to be addressed, for example, a problem with another department that is affecting the employee’s performance.

ACAS provide further guidance on capability procedures.


Capability

The capability procedure mirrors the disciplinary procedure. This is because, even though the procedure aims to rectify the problem, there is a possibility that the employee may be dismissed.

The capability procedure focuses on the individual’s capability to do the job. Incapability may be caused by illness, disability, inability to meet the requirements of the role even though others can.

The capability procedure should be used for handling issues related to long-term illness, disability, or just long-term absence from work. It is also helpful where an employee cannot meet the demands of the job – and can be used to send a clear message about performance levels required and the consequences of continued incapability to meet standards.

You should redeploy the person to a more suitable job where possible. Where an employee has failed to meet the required performance standards, you may have no choice but to commence dismissal proceedings, once a capability procedure has been followed.

ACAS has published a guide to discipline and grievances at work. You should use this procedure in cases of incapability where previous warnings have been given and there is no suitable alternative. This procedure should not be used for low-level performance issues.


Attendance management

Attendance management is what organisations use to monitor attendance, including absence and timekeeping. The Acas guide to managing attendance and absence can be found here.


Grievance

Disagreements at work are inevitable. Sometimes they become intractable and need to be addressed. Having a set grievance procedure can depersonalise the process so that a resolution can be achieved.

A PCC will typically be too small to involve an independent person for the employee to raise a grievance with. If this is the case, it is in your interests to make it clear that all grievances will be treated fairly and objectively even if the grievance is about something you have said or done.

Sometimes, in smaller firms, grievances can sometimes be taken as personal criticism. Following your grievance procedure can make it easier to hear any grievances in a calm and objective manner, being as fair to the employee as possible in the resolution of the problem.

All discussions, whether informal or formal, should give the employee sufficient time to state their case. In some circumstances, simply giving the employee the opportunity to air the grievance will take most of the heat out of it. Wherever possible grievances should be dealt with informally first. This can often be achieved by mediation however, this can only be achieved providing you have consent from everyone involved.

Acas have some useful resources for managing grievances. They have also produced the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. Additionally, ACAS have produced a Discipline and Grievances at Work Guide for employers. This guide is the minimum an employer should follow when handling such issues within the workplace. Together these resources will help you to identify a grievance and deal with it fairly and consistently.


Family-friendly policies

Employees have the right to various family-friendly measures including, maternity leave and pay, adoption leave and pay, paternity leave and pay, shared parental leave and pay, parental leave, parental bereavement leave and pay, flexible and hybrid working, time off for dependants. The ACAS advice is here.


Sexual Harassment

PCCs now have a legal duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into force on 26 October 2024. Although all types of harassment are concerning, the prevalence of sexual harassment in workplaces has led to these specific legal measures.  This is particularly timely given the Harrods’ revelations, and it is strongly recommended that parishes adjust their existing policy on harassment/conduct/dignity to incorporate the new provisions. 

While employers have had the legal duties to combat harassment since 2010, the change introduces a new, positive responsibility to take reasonable measures so harassment does not happen, rather than just taking action when it does. This is analogous to the need to pre-empt health & safety issues. It gives employment tribunals the power to uplift sexual harassment compensation by up to 25%, where an employer has breached the new duty to prevent sexual harassment. 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) technical guidance on sexual harassment and harassment at work also advises employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties e.g. contractors.

Definition
Workplace sexual harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature that violates a worker’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. 
Sexual harassment could be a one-off incident or recurring behaviour. It can occur in a number of different ways. For instance, it might include telling sexually offensive jokes, sharing pornographic or sexual images, making sexual remarks about someone’s appearance or touching someone against their will. Importantly, it does not need to be intended to be sexual.

What actions should Parishes take?
PCCs should consider what further reasonable steps could be taken to help protect their staff from sexual harassment. What is considered to be “reasonable steps” will vary and there will be no particular criteria or minimum standards an employer must meet – it will depend on the facts and circumstances of each situation. The Employment Rights Bill proposes to extend the requirement to take “all” reasonable steps.

To respond to the new Act, it is recommended PCCs: 

  • consider the risks of sexual harassment occurring in the course of employment. 
  • Consider any potential hotspots 
  • It is not usual for incidents to go unreported so, consider conducting an anonymous staff survey to gain a clearer picture
  • Consider conducting a risk assessment to identify steps needed to mitigate risk
  • consider what steps to take to reduce those risks and prevent sexual harassment of workers
  • Review existing policies so that expectations of staff and any third parties who they may come into contact with (agency staff, contractors, clients, customers, supplier, the general public etc) are clear. 
  • Communicate the PCC’s stance on sexual harassment, including by third parties, so that it is clear that it will not tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace and the consequences of such conduct. This could be done by email, notices displayed in prominent places in the workplace 
  • All employees should take meaningful, good quality training on a regular basis to keep it live. Attendance records should be kept as well as a record of the content of the training
  • Communicate the avenues for reporting sexual harassment and the steps that the PCC will take to deal with any instances.
  • implement those reasonable steps
  • Involve the PCC and all church officers are on board
  • Monitor and report at least annually

Currently, harassment by third parties, including pupils, cannot be considered by employment tribunals. The Employment Rights Bill intends to change this to include third parties. Such a change will probably take a year or more to agree. 

Useful Resources
ACAS advice, including on policies: https://www.acas.org.uk/sexual-harassment 
The Fawcett Society has a detailed Toolkit available for free.


Development (training)

Acas have some useful resources on developing staff in their archive.


Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing is the term used when an employee passes on information concerning wrongdoing. This can also be referred to as “making a disclosure” or “blowing the whistle”. The wrongdoing will typically (although not necessarily) be something they have witnessed at work. Further information on whistleblowing can be found here.


Disciplinary

The Acas guide to workplace discipline can be found here. Where performance or conduct issues are of a minor nature it is best to first seek an informal resolution to any difficulty. Often a prompt and informal one-to-one discussion is all that is needed to improve an employee's conduct or performance or to get it back on track. In such circumstances:

  • Talk with the individual in private;
  • Remain positive and constructive and encourage two-way discussion;
  • Explain the shortcomings in conduct or performance to the employee and reaffirm the expected standard;
  • Listen to the employee's explanation and, if there is still a problem, give an informal warning;
  • Agree on any improvement needed and focus the discussion on finding ways to achieve the necessary improvement;
  • Agree any actions to be taken to achieve improvement and by when;
  • Agree on a date for a follow-up meeting.

Following this meeting, make a record of:

  • The date the meeting took place;
  • What was discussed at the meeting?;
  • The outcome of the meeting;
  • Any review date set.

This should be shared with the employee. Where an employee has still failed to meet the required standards of performance or conduct, you may have no choice but to commence dismissal proceedings, once a disciplinary procedure has been followed. 

Acas has also published a discipline and grievances at work guide. You should use this procedure in cases of gross misconduct and consider it in cases of continued misconduct where previous warnings have been given. This procedure should not be used for the first stage in any situation or for minor breaches of conduct.

Page last updated: Thursday 31st October 2024 1:24 PM
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