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Example staff handbook structure

This example structure provides a clear framework for creating or reviewing a staff handbook to ensure it includes all key policies and procedures. It helps employers organise handbook content consistently and ensure employees have access to essential information about working arrangements, conduct and employment practices.

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By Stephen Simpson, Brightmine Principal Editor

Use this model structure as the basis for putting together a new staff handbook or reviewing an existing staff handbook to ensure that it includes the necessary policies and procedures.

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  • Example structure of a staff handbook
    • Introduction
    • General issues
    • Recruitment
    • Employee wellbeing
    • Working hours
    • Flexible working
    • Absence from work
    • Family-friendly leave
    • Pay and benefits
    • Health and safety
    • Appearance and behaviour
    • Protecting the business
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
    • Discipline, grievance and underperformance
    • Termination of employment
    • Staff declaration
  • How to use this document
  • Supporting guidance for this document
    • Notes
  • Future developments

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Latest updates

Updated to include a Bereaved partner’s paternity leave policy in the family-friendly leave section.

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About the author

Stephen Simpson, Acting content manager - employment law and compliance at Brightmine

Stephen Simpson
Principal Editor – Employment Law and Compliance, Brightmine

Stephen is a principal editor who has worked on the Brightmine employment law and leading practice resources for over 20 years. After growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1980s, he trained as a solicitor in England in the 1990s but soon moved into legal publishing. He was among the first recruits to Brightmine in the year before it was launched as XpertHR in 2002.

Stephen has worked on a wide range of employment law and leading practice resources, including overseeing the creation and expansion of the HR templates resource types (Policies and procedures, Letters and forms, and Contract clauses). He has written up over 1,000 reports on employment law cases and created practical guidance on a range of HR issues for the Commentary & insights tool. He also had a stint working on Personnel Today.

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