A well-crafted employee handbook is a cornerstone for fostering a positive workplace culture, mitigating legal risks, and aligning employees with organizational goals. Despite the size of your company, it’s essential to have an employee handbook in place and ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations. When it comes to employee handbooks, there are many pitfalls and considerations that HR professionals should be aware of.
Compliance-wise, not all businesses are required to have an employee handbook. Only companies with 10 or more employees are required by law to have an employee handbook. However, an employee handbook can serve as a great tool to help companies avoid legal risks and as an internal communication guideline that helps employees better understand their rights and expectations from the company.
While specific compliance requirements may vary based on factors such as the industry, location, and size of the organization, here are some general areas that you should consider when developing an employee handbook:
An employee handbook is an overview of the company’s policy and has a broader scope and covers a range of topics related to employment and organizational culture. It is often the one shared for onboarding and communication of organizational values. While a procedure manual goes into detail about the standard operating procedures with step-by-step guidance, entailing specific protocols in the day-to-day operations.
In practice, you can choose to combine the two documents into one single comprehensive guide or maintain separately. If your business doesn’t have a procedure manual in place yet, it’s crucial that you at least develop a safety policy procedure to safeguard the day-to-day operation.
When developing an employee handbook, there are some core considerations that employers should have in mind:
The best practice is to review your employee handbook regularly and make updates in a timely manner. The goal is to have your employee handbook always reflect the reality of your company’s policies, no matter what changes were made. If you don’t have the resources to do so, you should at least conduct a yearly review of your employee handbook.
Employee handbook best practices are rooted in clarity, consistency, and adaptability. Companies need to establish a well-defined purpose before actually crafting the content. Companies should be well aware of their priorities and what role they want this handbook to play in their success. Communication tool? Legal Guide? Culture Enabler? This can mainly depend on each company’s status quo and affect how their employee handbook is drafted.
To get more detailed instructions and guidance on employee handbooks, watch our most recent webinar: Employee Handbooks - To Do or Not To Do.