HR policies every Indian company needs: the 14-policy list
By Team ZekoHR · · 5 min read
Search for "HR policies list" and you will find pages with forty entries, most of them copied from a large company's intranet. A 50-person company does not need a sabbatical policy or a global mobility policy. It needs about fourteen, five of which are required or near-required by law. Here is the list, what each must contain, and the order to write them in.
Required or near-required by law
| Policy | Why it is required | Must contain |
|---|---|---|
| Prevention of sexual harassment (PoSH) | PoSH Act 2013 for any workplace with 10 or more employees | Definition of harassment, Internal Committee members with the external member, complaint process and timelines, confidentiality, protection from retaliation, annual report duty |
| Leave and holidays | State Shops and Establishments Acts set minimum leave; the Code on Social Security carries maternity benefit | Each leave type, entitlement, accrual, carry forward, encashment, application and approval, the year's holiday list and restricted holidays |
| Working hours and attendance | State S&E Acts and the OSH Code set hours, weekly off and overtime | Hours, core hours for hybrid teams, weekly off, overtime and comp-off rules, how attendance is recorded, regularisation, late-coming consequences |
| Code of conduct and disciplinary procedure | Not mandated for most small establishments, but a termination for misconduct without a written procedure rarely survives a challenge | Expected conduct, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, the warning sequence, show-cause and inquiry, who decides |
| Employee data and privacy notice | Digital Personal Data Protection Act obligations for employee personal data | What is collected, why, who sees it, retention, how to raise a request, security basics |
If you have only these five written down, you have covered most of what a labour inspector, a court or an auditor will ask for first.
Strongly recommended
| Policy | Why | Must contain |
|---|---|---|
| Probation and confirmation | Removes the ambiguity that produces disputes at month six | Duration, extension rules, review timing, what confirmation changes |
| Expenses and travel | Fights over reimbursements are the commonest HR friction | Categories, limits, receipts, approval chain, deadlines, what is never reimbursed |
| Hybrid and remote work | The unwritten version always breaks on the first fairness complaint | Model, eligibility, core hours, equipment, security, working from another city |
| Grievance and whistleblower | Gives people a route other than resignation or a public post | Who receives complaints, timelines, confidentiality, anti-retaliation, anonymous route |
| Performance and increments | Explains how ratings and money are decided | Cycle dates, rating scale, calibration, link to pay bands |
| Exit and full and final settlement | Makes the last month predictable for both sides | Notice period by level, buyout, clearance, settlement timeline, what letters are issued |
| IT and acceptable use | Protects company data and the employee | Devices, passwords, personal use, monitoring disclosure, what happens on exit |
| Employee referral | Cheap hiring channel that needs clear rules | Eligibility, bonus amount and timing, who cannot refer whom |
| Assets and equipment | Laptops disappear without it | Issue and return, damage, loss, deductions |
What each policy page should look like
A policy is not a legal document in a drawer. It is one to three pages in plain language that an employee can read in five minutes. Each should have:
- A one-paragraph purpose.
- Who it applies to.
- The rules, as short numbered points.
- The process: how to apply, who approves, within how long.
- Who owns the policy and the date it was last reviewed.
- Where to ask questions.
Keep figures that change every year, such as the holiday list, expense limits and insurance details, in annexures, so the policy itself stays stable. Collect an acknowledgement when a policy is published or materially changed; an employee portal can hold the policy and record who has read it, which is considerably more reliable than an email.
The order to write them in
For a company that has none of this written down, the sequence that pays off fastest:
- Leave and holidays, because it is the policy people consult most and the one that affects payroll every month.
- PoSH, because it is required and because constituting the Internal Committee takes time.
- Working hours and attendance, since it feeds payroll and is the source of most manager disputes.
- Code of conduct and discipline, before the first difficult termination, not after.
- Expenses, because the fights are already happening.
- Probation, exit, hybrid work, data privacy, in whichever order the next incident demands.
- The rest over the following year.
Writing the first five takes a focused week. Our guides to each cover the content: leave policy, PoSH basics, attendance policy, expense policy, hybrid work, whistleblower policy and probation and confirmation. Once they exist, gather them into an employee handbook with a version date.
Policies you can skip for now
Sabbatical, relocation, global mobility, car lease, education assistance, dress code beyond a sentence in the code of conduct, social media beyond a paragraph in IT use, and anything that exists only because a larger company has it. A policy you will not enforce is worse than no policy, because it proves you knew the rule and ignored it. Add a policy when a real situation shows you need one, write it the week it comes up, and date it.
This article describes general legal provisions and common practice, not legal advice. Which policies are mandatory depends on your state, establishment type and headcount; confirm with a professional.
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