Staff Contracts

Under clinical governance (section 7 of the contract) there is a requirement that staff have a confidentiality clause in their contract, linked to disciplinary procedure (Clause (8)7.2.7.4), which is something PCTs may soon be asking you about. Also there is a need for more detailed staff records of qualifications, training courses and CPD (Clause(8) 7.2.5 & 2.6). You also have a legal obligation to provide and keep up to date Staff Contracts from two months into their employment.

The Problem

But when do you find the time to amend them as soon as somebody joins, changes their hours, gets married/divorced, has a new tax code etc. So your contracts are quickly out of date and no longer comply. What can you do about it?

The Solution

We have spent two years reading books and visiting websites researching employment law in detail which, added to our 20 years of dealing with staff in a small chain of independent community pharmacies, has enabled us to create employment contracts that comply with the latest regulations but are specific to the jobs in a community pharmacy.

You check the basic contract and decide things like length of probation, holiday entitlement, disciplinary procedures, sick pay etc for each member of staff and record them.

Then when anything changes you pull up the relevant record, amend it and print out a new copy for the employee.

The pendrive holds some basic, customisable pharmacy job descriptions to clarify each person’s role within the business and help new staff to understand the hierarchy.

It also has three SOPs that cover staff and locum induction and staff training to ensure all your colleagues know how you would like these situations handled.

Finally you will get detailed advice on how to run effective appraisals. This is a job many pharmacists, along with managers in many other industries, are uncomfortable with, but which is essential to give feedback to your employees, to create a progress report and to decide between you what their future role within your company will be. Done right this will help to retain your staff, motivate your team and grow your business.