How often would you suggest training your staff in the Dignity at Work Policy?
Published on: 08/07/2026
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Seamus McGranaghan Director – Commercial, Education, Employment & Licensing, O'Reilly Stewart Solicitors
Seamus McGranaghan Director – Commercial, Education, Employment & Licensing, O'Reilly Stewart Solicitors
Seamus mcgranaghan 2021
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Seamus McGranaghan qualified as a Solicitor in O'Reilly Stewart Solicitors in 2003 and is an experienced Commercial Lawyer dealing with employment, commercial and education cases.

He has experience in the Industrial Tribunal representing both Claimants and Respondents and has provided seminars in relation to particular areas of employment law. Seamus is the only member of the Education and Law Association in Northern Ireland. He specialises in advising schools and colleges on policy matters, employment issues and student welfare. He is also responsible for the Education Law Quarterly Review.

In addition to having contributed at Legal Island’s Education Updates since 2010, Seamus in association with Legal Island provides a live “Employment Law @ 11” webinar on the first Friday of each month, dealing with all aspects of Employment law affecting Northern Irish employers.


How often would you suggest training your staff in the Dignity at Work Policy?

Seamus:    I mean, I think that the training probably needs to happen annually. So whatever format the training is taking place in, whether it is an hour's training once a year to refresh everybody's memory in relation to expectations, dignity, rules around bullying and harassment, I think that there probably needs to be some form of annual training.  

As regards your policies and procedures, they do need to be kept updated, they need to be kept fresh, and often they're marked that they'll be reviewed every 12 or 24 months.

There was a recent case there in England. I'll maybe speak about it later on just when we're talking about reasonable preventable steps. I think that this was the EAT on this case specifically. They had said that the policies had been reviewed within the past three years, and I thought, "God, that was quite a long period, three years". My expectation would be that maybe biannually would be the way to ensure that your policies and procedures are up-to-date.  

Likewise, as well, and tongue-in-cheek with it all, if you're keeping on top of it, then you're listening to webinars like these, and you're getting up-to-date information around specific new policies and procedures that have come in.  

I mean, we're quite fortunate here in Northern Ireland. We have Labour Relations Agency, we've the Equality Commission, and we've a few other organisations that lead out with guidance pieces.  

The Labour Relations Agency guidance often comes along with a health check that is subject to the powers of the tribunals, that they can take that into account. Those guidance pieces by the Labour Relations Agency . . . So, we do our best whenever we get new guidance to inform through the webinar here about those pieces of guidance.  

And maybe specifically, as well, if there is new guidance . . . We're all waiting on the new legislation coming through and filtering down through us. That is a great opportunity to review your policies and procedures and see if they need updated.  

So specifically, also where you know that there are changes in legislation or that there are new regulations that have been provided, again, you need to get on it fairly quickly and make sure that your policies are up to date and reflective of any new legislation or guidance.

For more insights and extended discussions on employment law topics, tune in to our podcast. 
Just search for "Employment Law at 11" on your favourite podcast platform — we're available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 08/07/2026