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If your HR policies and procedures were written before 2026, they’re already out of date. A few examples of why? From 1 January 2027, employees can claim unfair dismissal after six months, not two years. Since 30 October 2026, you must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. Statutory sick pay now starts on day one.
Yes, it’s that serious. At Charlie, one of my main responsibilities is to help our customers gather their bearings and understand how we can help them by setting the right policies in place.
I know handbooks and policies always seem like an afterthought when you're setting up a business, but if you don't have the right policies and procedures in place, that can quickly backfire.
It's not surprising in my line of work to hear of a grievance gone wrong because the wrong wording had been added to a policy, or an employee threatening a court case because the guidance was unclear.
A case I can recall is when a working abroad policy stated a max amount of days to work from, but with no specificity on the time period. The team member assumed it meant consecutive days, but that wasn’t the case. Actions were taken against them for the fault, but since the wording hadn’t been clear, they raised a grievance.
That can be tricky to navigate. Remember, there's always employment law to follow, but more importantly, there are the steps you put in place to avoid situations like this one.
This guide covers the HR policies and procedures you need at each stage of growth, what's changed, and how to write your own, with free templates drafted by our CIPD-qualified team (the HR governing body).
An HR policy is a written document that sets out how your business handles a specific situation: what you expect from employees, what they can expect from you, and what happens when something goes wrong.
A good HR policy:
Tailor every policy to your size, sector and way of working. A 10-person agency and a 10-person warehouse need very different health and safety policies.
It’s very common for small businesses to not have formal documents. “No, we don’t have that” is something I hear a lot on my calls, but it’s essential to have written proof of everything that’s going on in your business.
A policy says what you do, a procedure says how you do it step by step, and a strategy says where your people approach is heading.
Three: a written health and safety policy if you employ five or more people, and written disciplinary and grievance rules for every employee. Here's what each one needs to do.
If you have five or more employees, your health and safety policy must be written down. It should cover risk assessments, emergency procedures and who is responsible for what. Below five employees, you still have the same legal duty to keep people safe; you just don't have to write the policy down.
Every employee's written statement of employment particulars (the document every employee gets setting out their main terms) must set out your disciplinary rules, or point to a document that does. Your disciplinary policy explains your code of conduct, examples of misconduct and what disciplinary action involves. Your disciplinary procedure sets out each step, including the right to appeal.
Follow the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. If you unreasonably ignore it, a tribunal can increase compensation by up to 25%. With unfair dismissal, claims open after six months from January 2027, this is the policy to get right first.
Employees also need to know who to go to with a complaint, and what happens next. Your grievance policy should set out a step-by-step procedure, timescales and how to appeal a decision.
A written bullying and harassment policy isn't technically mandatory. But since 30 October 2026, you must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including from clients and customers. It's very hard to show you took all reasonable steps without a clear policy, training and a way to report concerns.
This policy is not a strict legal requirement, but under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, it’s highly recommended to have one. Workers are strongly protected from day one against dismissal or detriment if they expose wrongdoing within the workplace in favour of public interest. If you don’t have a procedure in place, you’re exposing yourself to big sanctions such as uncapped tribunal rewards.
The recent changes in sexual harassment prevention and proactive duty also give you a strong reason to get a whistleblowing policy. You want your team members to have a safe, confidential reporting route that’s separate from the official process.
Neither is a mandatory written HR policy. The Equality Act 2010 makes discrimination unlawful, and an equal opportunities policy shows how you prevent it. UK GDPR expects you to be able to show how you handle personal data. That’s because employers acting as “data controllers” must be able to prove they themselves comply with data protection principles. A data protection policy is the easiest way to do that.
Start with the ten policies in the first list, then add the rest as you hire. Each template is free and was drafted by our CIPD-qualified HR team for UK small businesses.
Legally required in writing once you have 5 or more employees.
Your main evidence that you've taken "all reasonable steps" to prevent harassment.
Shows how you store and use employee and customer data under UK GDPR.
A new statutory right to unpaid bereavement leave arrives in 2027.
Legally required, and critical now unfair dismissal applies after 6 months.
SSP now starts on day one, at £123.25 a week from April 2026.
Employees can request it from day one, and from 2027 you must hold a consultation meeting before refusing.
Legally required; sets out how complaints are handled and appealed.
Covers entitlement, carry-over and restricted periods; records must now be kept for 6 years.
Unfair dismissal claims open at 6 months from January 2027, so probation reviews need to happen before then.
Makes sure every hiring manager hires the same fair way; right to work checks now cover contractors and agency workers too.
Sets clear rules on office and remote days.
Shows how you prevent discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
Sets standards for showing up and how issues are handled.
Keeps people safe when they work alone or out of hours.
Action plans become mandatory for employers with 250+ workers in 2027.
A quick word of advice: although this is a good first base to start writing your policy, bear in mind each company will have different requirements. You’ll need to pick which policies matter most from your business apart from the required ones, and you’ll need to do an extra check on wording to avoid legal complications.
That can be a daunting process. That's why at Charlie we don't only give you the templates: we also offer to build a plan based on where you're at. We also pair you with CIPD-qualified HR advisors who proactively flags when a law change affects your policies and reviews your contracts before it becomes a problem. If you'd like pro-active support on your compliance, and expert advice, book in some time to learn more about Charlie Grow.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 became law on 18 December 2025 and is being phased in through 2026 and 2027. These are the changes that mean rewriting a policy, not just tweaking a contract.
Source: Charlie's HR team, Employment Law Changes 2026–2027 timeline. Dates marked TBC depend on government consultations.
There’s a lot of jargon in there. But the change that matters most for small businesses is the six-month unfair dismissal rule. From 1 January 2027, anyone with six months' service can bring a claim, and there's no longer a cap on what a tribunal can award. In practice, that means your probation reviews need to happen well before month six, and your disciplinary procedure needs to be followed to the letter every time.
Why’s that? Because decisions MUST be supported by clear evidence and a fair process, and as always, discrimination and automatically unfair dismissal protections apply from day one.
We don't just build HR software for small businesses; we are one. Beyond the essentials, these are the policies we've added to shape how we work.
Not every policy we've tried has worked. We ran an unlimited holiday for three years, and wrote about everything that went wrong.
You can read all of our policies in CharlieHR's public handbook. You might also need others we haven't covered, like a social media, confidentiality or training policy.
Start from a trusted template, adapt it to how your business actually works, and get it reviewed by an HR professional before it goes in your handbook. If HR is one of five jobs you're juggling, these nine steps will keep you on track.
Review your policies at least once a year and whenever the law changes, then roll out any change through managers first and the whole team second. At Charlie, we treat our policies as living documents, not something written once and forgotten.
If you haven't reviewed your handbook since the Employment Rights Act passed, January 2027 is the moment to do it: the unfair dismissal and fire-and-rehire changes take effect on the 1st.
A written health and safety policy if you have five or more employees, plus written disciplinary and grievance rules, which must be referenced in each employee's written statement of particulars. Everything else is optional, but most small businesses also need annual leave, sickness and absence, data protection, bullying and harassment, and whistleblowing policies.
Start with the three legally required policies, then add bullying and harassment, sickness and absence, annual leave, data protection and flexible working. Add recruitment, equal opportunities and hybrid working as you start hiring regularly.
Yes, if they were written before April 2026. At minimum, update sickness and absence (day-one SSP), annual leave (6-year records), bullying and harassment (all reasonable steps, third-party harassment), disciplinary (unfair dismissal after 6 months from 1 January 2027), and recruitment (right to work checks for contractors and agency workers from 1 October 2026). Our HR advisors can help: email hradvice@charliehr.com.
Yes. Store them somewhere every employee can access whenever they need to, ideally your HR software. In Charlie, you can upload and share your company handbook with the whole team.
Usually not, and it's best to keep them that way. State clearly in your handbook that policies are non-contractual, so you can update them without changing everyone's employment contract.
In a small business, it's often a founder, operations manager or chief of staff without HR training. That's fine for a first draft, but have anything legally required reviewed by a CIPD-qualified HR professional.
At least once a year, and whenever employment law changes. Through 2026 and 2027, that means checking them each time an Employment Rights Act measure comes into force.
Charlie Grow pairs you with CIPD-qualified HR advisors who proactively flag when a law change affects your policies and review your contracts before it becomes a problem. Don’t find out about an issue when it’s too late, catch it on time. Find out more about Charlie Grow.
