Good practice checklist

Pay and associated service conditions

• Have you got a pay structure that can justify differentials within it, for example through a job evaluation scheme? Do the differentials reflect the culture of the charity, particularly its public face - can you avoid accusations of 'fat cat' charity director salaries?
• Do you have established mechanisms for annual reviews and cost-of-living increases? Are these cross-referenced with other bodies in the voluntary sector?
• Have you considered performance-related pay and all the associated issues of motivation, reward and potential divisiveness of a policy that could be seen as pitching workers against each other to earn different-sized shares of the cake?
• Do you have a salary and benefits policy that aims, for example, to pay at the average level for appropriate comparators?
• Do you have annual leave and sick pay arrangements that are both attractive and affordable?

Contracts of employment

• Do you issue a staff handbook or information pack on or before the first day of service to every employee?
• Do you offer the basic minimum maternity leave and pay, or do you have local, enhanced arrangements, including paternity and carer leave?
• Do you apply all conditions equally and pro rata to part time staff?
• Do you have a pension scheme? Many employers are now required by law to offer their employees access to a stakeholder pension scheme. Some employers however will be exempt. To find out how you are affected see www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/employer/stakeholder
• Do you have a redundancy agreement?
• Are you sure that you have an employer-employee contract, or could you be using self-employed sub-contractors?
• If in doubt about whether your contracts meet the full requirements of the law, do you have the name of a good employment lawyer?

Disciplinary and grievance procedures

• Do you have clearly set out processes that go from one stage to the next as issues become more serious?
• Do your procedures allow for objective evaluation, independent adjudication and appeal at each stage?
• Do you have a set of disciplinary rules and publicise them widely? Do they reflect the kind of activities that your staff are likely to come up against when supporting your clients?
• Do your procedures allow for representation and effective advice to be available?
• Can your procedures cope with incapability as well as indiscipline?

Equal opportunities

• Do you check all your actions to ensure that you are avoiding illegal discrimination?
• Have you extended the principles of your policy to cover ageism, sexuality and other areas of discrimination not currently covered by the law?

Health and safety

• Have you set up mechanisms to raise employees' awareness of safe working practices?
• Have you carried out risk assessments, regular audits and safety inspections?
• Is the reporting line for safety matters clearly spelled out and understood by everybody?

Find out more about other staff issues and examples in the In more depth section.