The HR Policy Starter Kit

1. 01Adopt the anti-harassment policy first — the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, as amended in 2022, requires an internal code of conduct and a three-member inquiry committee, and it is the one policy Pakistani law makes mandatory by name.
2. 02Adopt a code of conduct next, defining misconduct for your workplace — the statutory list from 1968 never imagined data theft, moonlighting on client projects, or a hostile group chat.
3. 03Write a leave policy covering how leave is requested, approved, carried forward, and encashed — the contract sets the entitlement; the policy stops the arguments.
4. 04Adopt a grievance procedure with named steps and timelines — the industrial relations statutes give workmen a formal route [PROVISIONS VARY BY PROVINCE — TO BE VERIFIED], and you want problems surfacing internally first.
5. 05Publish an equal-opportunity and anti-discrimination policy — client and investor questionnaires now ask for it, and it frames every hiring and promotion dispute before one starts.
6. 06Adopt a payroll and expenses policy: pay dates, reimbursement rules, advances, and who approves what — most internal fraud starts where approval rules are unwritten.
7. 07Write an IT and acceptable-use policy for company devices and accounts, stating plainly that company systems may be monitored — implied consent is shaky ground.
8. 08Adopt a data-handling policy for employee and customer personal data — with comprehensive data protection legislation still pending [LEGISLATIVE STATUS TO BE VERIFIED], your policy and contracts are the framework that actually binds.
9. 09Publish a social media policy separating personal accounts from speaking for the company — the employee's post is the company's crisis by the time you see it.
10. 10Adopt a remote and hybrid work policy: eligibility, hours, equipment, data security at home, and which city's rules follow an employee who relocates.
11. 11Write a health and safety policy — provincial occupational safety and health statutes reach offices as well as factories [APPLICABLE PROVINCIAL ACTS TO BE VERIFIED], and it is the first document requested after an incident.
12. 12Adopt a recruitment and background-check policy — verify degrees through HEC, take references in writing, and fix who may sign an offer at each level.
13. 13Write a performance management policy with a documented review cycle — in a termination dispute, the appraisal file is the evidence.
14. 14Adopt a conflict-of-interest and outside-work policy requiring disclosure of side businesses and of family interests in vendors.
15. 15Open a whistleblowing channel that bypasses the reporting line — the person a complaint is about should never be the person who receives it.
16. 16Adopt an anti-bribery and gifts policy with thresholds — necessary the day you sell to government, and expected the day you take investors subject to the FCPA or the UK Bribery Act.
17. 17Write an offboarding policy that revokes system access on the last working day and sequences the handover — most data walks out in the gap between resignation and exit.

This checklist is general information, not legal advice on your facts. Each item is covered in depth in The HR Legal Hub.