Employee Handbook in Singapore: A Drafting Guide

The Employment Act 1968 does not require employers to issue an employee handbook. The statutory documentation duties are limited: itemised payslips, written key employment terms (KETs) within 14 days of the start of employment, and basic employment records. But a well-drafted handbook discharges several practical functions that the bare statutory documents do not.

Communication of statutory entitlements

Many employees are unfamiliar with their rights under the Employment Act 1968 — leave accruals, notice periods, sick leave, public holiday pay, retrenchment benefits. A handbook is a useful, accessible explainer. Where the handbook accurately reflects the law, it reduces low-level HR queries and supports a culture of compliance.

Embedding TAFEP and TGFEP expectations

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices and the Workplace Fairness Act 2025 expect employers to maintain clear policies on recruitment, performance management, grievance, and dismissal. The handbook is the natural home for these policies.

Procedural support for dismissal

Summary dismissal for misconduct under section 14 of the Employment Act 1968 requires "due inquiry". A handbook documenting the inquiry process — notification of allegations, opportunity to respond, decision-maker, appeal — is the procedural backbone the employer will be relying on if the dismissal is challenged.

Onboarding

The handbook is one of the documents new employees most commonly read in the first week. Investing in a clear, navigable handbook pays back over the lifetime of every employee who consults it.

A handbook that is well drafted but never updated is worse than one that is acknowledged to be outdated. Annual review, with version dates on each policy, is the minimum baseline.

The single most important structural decision in drafting an employee handbook is the boundary between the contractual and the informational. Both have a place; the boundary should be explicit.

Contractual sections

Contractual policies bind the employer and the employee. Common contractual policies include:

• Disciplinary and grievance procedures (with the inquiry standard required by section 14);
• Restrictive covenants (confidentiality, non-solicitation, non-compete) — better embedded directly in the employment contract;
• IP assignment;
• Bonus and commission schemes (often cross-referenced from the contract);
• Code of conduct;
• IT, data, and acceptable-use policy;
• Workplace harassment policy (incorporating Tripartite Advisory expectations).

Informational sections

Informational policies are non-binding statements of practice. Common informational sections include:

• Summary of statutory leave and benefits;
• Performance review cycle and timing;
• Training and development pathways;
• Welfare and wellbeing offerings (health screening, employee assistance, gym subsidies);
• Travel and expense practice;
• Office norms (dress code, working hours, hybrid working arrangements).

Drafting the boundary

Each section should state, in its opening paragraph, whether it is contractual or informational. Where a policy is contractual, the employment contract should expressly incorporate it by reference. Where a policy is informational, it should state that the employer may change it without notice. This avoids the common dispute in which an employee asserts that a particular policy was a binding term and the employer asserts it was not.

Code of conduct

A short statement of the standards expected — integrity, respect, compliance with law, no harassment, no discrimination. Cross-reference to the disciplinary procedure.

Disciplinary procedure

A step-by-step process for handling misconduct: investigation, notification of allegations, response, hearing, decision, appeal. The standard required by section 14 of the Employment Act 1968 ("due inquiry") is embedded here.

Grievance procedure

How employees raise concerns about colleagues, managers, or the work environment. Stages, timeframes, confidentiality, and protection from retaliation. The procedure should accept anonymous reports and offer a route around the line manager where the line manager is the subject of the complaint.

Workplace harassment policy

Definitions aligned with the Protection from Harassment Act 2014 and the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment. Reporting channels, investigation framework, support for affected employees, disciplinary outcomes for substantiated complaints.

Anti-discrimination policy

Statement of protected characteristics under the TGFEP and the Workplace Fairness Act 2025 (age, nationality, sex, marital status, pregnancy status, caregiving responsibilities, race, religion, language, disability, mental health condition). Application across recruitment, terms and conditions, training, promotion, and dismissal.

Leave policies

Annual leave (statutory minimum and contractual entitlement), sick leave (medical certificates from registered Singapore medical practitioners required), hospitalisation leave, family-related leave under the Child Development Co-Savings Act 2001 (maternity, paternity, shared parental, childcare, adoption), bereavement leave (informational, where provided).

Data protection policy

How the employer collects, uses, discloses, and protects employee personal data under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012, including the employer's lawful basis for processing and the employee's rights of access and correction.

IT and acceptable use

Use of company devices, networks, email, and cloud services. Monitoring and privacy expectations, BYOD treatment, social media expectations.

Health and safety

Statement of the employer's obligations under the Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006 and employee responsibilities. Incident reporting, training, and PPE where relevant.

Retirement and re-employment

Cross-reference to the Retirement and Re-employment Act 1993, the statutory retirement age (63), and the re-employment age (68), with employer practice on re-employment offers and the process for retirement.

Although the handbook is not statutorily mandated, MOM and TAFEP have clear expectations of what should be in it, and these expectations crystallise in enforcement engagement, audits, and complaints handling.

MOM

MOM expects employers to maintain written records of employment terms (the KETs), itemised payslips, and basic employment records (working hours, leave taken, salary paid). It also expects clarity on the policies that translate Employment Act 1968 entitlements into the employer's operational practice — leave application, sick leave reporting, public holiday work compensation.

TAFEP

TAFEP's guidance focuses on fairness throughout the employment lifecycle. The handbook should embed:

• Fair recruitment standards (job advertisements without prohibited criteria, structured interviewing);
• Performance management with documented expectations, regular review, and constructive feedback;
• Fair selection in retrenchment (per the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower);
• Workplace harassment policies aligned with the 2015 Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment (updated 2023);
• Family-friendly practices, including flexible working arrangements where feasible.

Workplace Fairness Act 2025

The WFA 2025 transposes core TGFEP protections into binding law. Employers should review their handbook against the Act's protected characteristics and ensure that recruitment, terms and conditions, training, promotion, and dismissal policies do not contain or facilitate prohibited treatment.

PCR alignment for in-house counsel and HR legal

Where the employer's legal team includes Singapore-admitted in-house counsel, the handbook's interaction with the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015 obligations of in-house counsel should be considered, particularly on whistleblower-style internal investigation policies.

The most common drafting weakness in employee handbooks is style. Many are written in dense, formal language that the average employee will not read. A handbook that is not read is a handbook that does not communicate, and its evidential value in subsequent disputes is correspondingly diminished.

Plain English

Use plain English. Short sentences. Active voice. Where defined terms are needed, define them simply at the top of the section, not in a long glossary at the end.

Navigation

A clickable table of contents (for digital handbooks) or a tabbed structure (for printed handbooks). Headings within each policy. Cross-references where relevant.

Examples and FAQs

Illustrative examples and short FAQs at the end of each major policy. "How do I apply for sick leave if I am admitted to hospital on a weekend?" "What happens if I report a harassment complaint about my line manager?" These examples make the handbook usable.

Version control

A version date on every page (or at least on each policy). A change log at the back of the handbook. Annual review with a clear "next review date".

Acknowledgment

An acknowledgment form that the employee signs on receipt, confirming they have read and understood the handbook (or at least the key contractual policies) and that they agree to be bound by the contractual sections. Some employers integrate the acknowledgment into the onboarding portal; others use a paper sign-off.

Translations

Where the workforce includes employees whose primary language is not English, key policies (particularly disciplinary, harassment, and grievance procedures) should be translated. The legally binding version remains the English original, but the translation supports comprehension and is evidence of fair process.

Singapore employment law has evolved materially in recent years — the 2019 Employment Act amendments, the Workplace Fairness Act 2025, the April 2025 Tripartite Advisory on the Use of Non-Compete Clauses, updates to the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment in 2023, and ongoing revisions to the retirement and re-employment framework. A handbook drafted three years ago is likely to be partly out of date.

Annual review

An annual full review is the minimum. The review should cover:

• Statutory changes (new Acts, amendments, subsidiary legislation);
• Tripartite Advisory updates;
• MOM and TAFEP guidance updates;
• Operational changes (new offices, new benefit structures);
• Lessons from incidents and disputes in the preceding year.

Ad hoc updates

Material legal changes should be reflected ad hoc as they happen, rather than waiting for the annual cycle. The introduction of the WFA 2025 was a clear trigger for ad hoc updates across multiple policies.

Communication of changes

Changes to contractual policies require the employee's agreement (or at least an absence of objection following clear notice). Changes to informational policies can be made unilaterally, but should be communicated transparently with a brief explanation of what has changed and why.

Counsel involvement

Annual handbook reviews benefit from a brief external legal review, even where the employer has internal HR legal capacity. External counsel sees patterns across multiple clients and is well placed to flag changes in MOM and TAFEP focus, including informal guidance that has not yet been codified.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Always consult a Singapore-qualified lawyer holding a current Practising Certificate before acting. For a directory of employment lawyers who can support handbook reviews, see Singapore employment lawyers or visit contact us.

Inconsistency with the employment contract

The handbook says one thing about notice or bonus eligibility; the contract says another. Where the contract is the more recently signed document, it generally prevails, but the dispute is avoidable with cross-referenced drafting.

Outdated statutory references

References to old Employment Act sections, old Tripartite Advisories, or repealed legislation undermine the handbook's credibility and may operate as evidence that the employer's processes were not aligned with the current law at the relevant time.

Discriminatory language

Phrases such as "younger employees", "Singaporean-only roles", "women employees who are pregnant should consider taking unpaid leave instead" carry both reputational and legal risk under the WFA 2025. A line-by-line review against the Act's protected characteristics is worthwhile.

Overreach in restrictive covenants

A handbook that purports to impose worldwide non-compete obligations for two years on all employees is unlikely to be enforceable for most roles, and the broader the drafting the lower the prospects of enforcement (see our article on non-compete clauses). Drafting restrictive covenants in the handbook rather than the employment contract is also a structural error — they should be in the contract.

Missing or weak harassment policy

The Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment (updated 2023) sets clear expectations. A weak or missing policy is a recurring TAFEP and POHA flashpoint.

No acknowledgment

Without an acknowledgment, the employer's evidential basis for relying on the handbook in a subsequent dispute is weaker. Acknowledgments are easy to operationalise and should be standard.