Employment law is changing – but don't start with the law

Over the past few months, I've spoken to a number of organisations that are preparing for employment law changes by updating policies and rewriting contracts.

While that's important, it's often not where I suggest they start.

The biggest risks I see rarely come from having the wrong document. They come from managers not following the process, inconsistent decision-making, or policies that no longer reflect how the organisation actually operates.

For example, a business may have a perfectly acceptable disciplinary policy, but if managers are handling similar situations differently, risk still increases. Likewise, a contract may have been legally compliant when it was introduced, but if the organisation has changed significantly since then, it may no longer reflect the reality of the employment relationship.

That's why I encourage employers to think beyond compliance alone.

When reviewing contracts and policies, I usually ask three questions:

Do they reflect current legislation?

This is the obvious one. Employment law continues to evolve and employers need confidence that their documentation remains up to date.

Do they reflect how the organisation actually operates?

Many policies and contracts are amended over time, copied from previous versions, or inherited from earlier stages of growth. The result can be documents that look good on paper but don't align with current practice.

Would managers know what to do if an issue arose tomorrow?

This is often the most important question. Even the best policies are of limited value if managers lack the confidence or capability to apply them consistently.

Employment law changes provide a useful opportunity to review contracts and policies, but they should also prompt a wider conversation about employee relations, manager capability and organisational risk.

The organisations that tend to navigate change most successfully aren't necessarily those with the longest policies. They're the ones with clear processes, confident managers and documentation that is both compliant and practical.

If you haven't reviewed your contracts, policies or people processes recently, now may be a good time to ask whether they are still fit for purpose—not just legally, but operationally too.