Free Access to HR Policies, Templates and Advice

Human Resource Solutions is a human resource management consultancy specialising in supporting small businesses. Welcome to our website!

We know that many of you running a small businesses simply can't afford access to professional HR advice or guidance. We also know that as soon as you start employing staff it is vital to ensure you get it right to prevent costly mistakes. This website is provided on a pro bono (free) basis to help you do just that.

On this website you will find a large number of (hopefully!) useful free resources. For example numerous HR policies and procedures templates can be downloaded (in MS Word format) from the links on the left and adapted for your own business. We also have a blog where numerous frequently asked questions are answered, and a facility for you to ask one of our consultants a question by email - we'll respond usually within 24 hours.

This is a busy website - we have thousands of page views every month and provide answers to dozens of questions. In fact we have well over 300 template downloads every day! To keep this resource free for you we have some adverts and affiliate links scattered throughout the site - hopefully you will not find these too intrusive.

If you are new to this website, you might want to start on our Get Started page.

Through the covid 19 pandemic a number of important planned changes to UK employment law  came into force which you may have missed - these include:

• expanded information must be provided in the contract of employment as well as making this available by day 1 of employment
• access to new provisions for Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay come into force
• in calculating holiday pay, the reference period for determining an average week’s pay will increase from 12 weeks to 52 weeks

To take account of these changes we have changed, and where appropriate, introduced new policy and contract templates. These are detailed below as well as a few other highlights from the website...

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10 highlights from our website..

1. Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Policy Template
Bereaved parents are entitled to two weeks’ leave following the death of a child under the age of 18 or if they suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. This is a day one right – there are no qualifying criteria. Employees who have sufficient service and earnings will also be entitled to statutory parental bereavement pay. This new policy template includes all you need to implement this important change.

2.  Integrated Special Leave and Bereavement Leave Policy Template
This new comprehensive policy integrates all the statutory leave entitlements available to employees (excluding parental and annual leave). This includes time off for dependants, bereavement leave (incorporating the new 2020 Parental Bereavement Leave provisions), public duty leave and various other forms of statutory leave. It includes the necessary forms for employees to request this leave. We have also produced a **NEW** simple Bereavement Leave Policy template which will suit organisations who just want to implement basic bereavement leave provisions.

3. Employment Contract Templates **Updated with new legislation changes**
From April 2020 UK employment law has changed and all new starts will be entitled to a written employment contract from day one of their employment. This must contain the specific information outlined in the new legislation. All our contract templates have now been updated to reflect these changes, including permanent, fixed-term and zero hours contracts. We also offer a "Contract for Services" template for employing contractors / freelancers and a Letter of Appointment template which you can use to confirm a job offer without having to produce a full blown contract straight away.

4. Integrated Contract and Staff Handbook  **Updated with new legislation changes**
Following numerous requests we have now produced a free simplified and integrated Employment Contract and Staff Handbook. This is suitable for any small business even if only employing 1 member of staff. It takes less than ten minutes to fill in, and we have also produced a completed example for guidance. Now updated with the 2020 employment legislation changes.

5.**NEW** Annual Leave Policy Template
If you need a policy which outlines how statutory annual leave is calculated, how workers go about requesting leave (including leave card templates), holiday pay calculations, how to deal with sickness during leave and the carrying over of annual leave then this policy template should meet your needs.

6. Shared Parental Leave
Shared Parental Leave is now a reality and significant rights to share maternity or adoption leave and pay are now an entitlement. If your member of staff (or their partner) gets pregnant they will be covered by these regulations. We have produced 2 template shared parental leave policies which fully cover these regulations.

7. Staff Handbook Template
A free 40 page professionally written and designed staff handbook in Word format which can be downloaded and easily adapted for your business. We have made some minor updates to this to reflect the 2020 legislation changes.

8. Procedure for Making a Flexible Working Request
Any member of staff can request flexible working. Here is a template which you can use with mimimal customisation for your business. It fully conforms to ACAS guidelines.

9. Submit a Question
You can submit a question for consideration by one of our professional HR Consultants. This is a free service, and you will receive an answer by email within 24 - 48 hours. Many of the questions and answers are collected (anonymously) in our blog.

10. How to Deal With Staff Who Can't or Won't Perform
Our much requested ebook in response to some of the most asked questions on our website is available for download. It's by Alex Brogan our Lead Consultant and comes complete with a free comprehensive online resource pack and access to our email helpdesk. (We make a small charge for this of £4.99).