Employee Handbooks: How to Write One and What to Include

An employee handbook is a workplace manual that outlines a company’s rules and policies. It is an effective way to communicate expectations on both sides, introduce newcomers to your company culture and disseminate other valuable information to your employees. It is an essential tool for setting policy and standards of compliance. A well-written employee handbook that is consistently applied can minimize the risk of legal action and claims around wrongful termination, harassment, and discrimination. Creating an effective employee handbook that can stand up to these types of claims can be quite a task, but having one in place that has been reviewed by legal council is important to creating uniformity across your organization. Below are a few essential topics you should consider including in your employee handbook.

1. Introduction

Use the employee handbook introduction to outline your company’s vision, mission, values and provide a brief history around when and how your organization was formed. When an employee knows and understands your vision, mission, and values, they can successfully align with it.

2. Employment

Reserve this section to summarize federal, state, and local laws that are relevant to your workforce. Some examples would be equal employment opportunity, FLSA, affirmative action, anti-harassment, and anti-discrimination laws. You may also choose to provide information about performance feedback, your company’s corrective action process and personnel files and access to those files.

3. Standards of Conduct

Employers should use this section to communicate expectations at your company and lay out the set of rules that define how employees should and should not behave. Including this section ensures orderly operations and provides the best possible work environment for your employees. When employees follow the rules of conduct, that protects the interests and safety of all employees and the organization. Some topics to cover are attendance expectations, use of computer systems, social media policy, dress code, smoking and the like.

4. Disciplinary Policies

This section of your employee handbook provides the basis around how your company addresses employee misconduct or inadequate performance. Use this area of the employee handbook to explain your disciplinary procedure. Define the scope, policy elements and the stages that may be followed when an infraction is committed.

5. Compensation and Work Hours

Outlining expected and normal office hours for staff is critical to ensuring your business operations run smoothly. If there are any departments that require deviation from the standard, this information should be clearly communicated in your employee handbook. Include rules around overtime, who is eligible and how it is paid. You can use this section to discuss recording work hours, meal periods and breaks, and payroll schedules.

6. Employee Benefits

Although you may have a benefits portal or other benefit-related communication that is distributed to employees, you may also consider adding a section in your employee handbook to reinforce the company’s policy around benefit offerings. You can include information about paid holidays, paid time off, health and welfare benefits, retirement and savings plans, group life insurance, and short- and long-term disability benefits. You would want to include eligibility rules for each of your benefit offerings.

7. Leaves of Absence

A leave of absence is an option for employees dealing with unusual circumstances — such as a serious medical emergency, birth of a child or death of someone in the worker’s immediate family. A leave of absence can be mandatory or voluntary, paid or unpaid. Designate this section to cover areas such as bereavement leave, funeral leave, jury duty, military leave, FMLA (if applicable) or personal leave.

8. Acknowledgement Form

Every employee in your organization should be required to sign and date an acknowledgement form stating that they have read, understood, and intend on complying with your company’s employee handbook. Reinforce that the handbook is not an employment contract and that their employment relationship with your organization is at-will, if applicable with the local and state laws and regulations.

After creating your company’s employment handbook, have it reviewed by legal counsel, internally or externally. This is important for several reasons --- first, a poorly written employee handbook can set you and your employees up for failure. A good lawyer will also be able to advise if your company policies are aligned with federal, state and local law. The last thing you want is a handbook that exposes you to workplace conflicts and liability.

Once your employee handbook has been reviewed and edited by a lawyer, you are ready to implement it into your organization. Develop a plan for training managers and supervisors on how to interpret and apply the policies. You should introduce and distribute the handbook to your workers and ensure that they acknowledge receipt. Lastly, put a plan in place to review and update the handbook as laws or company practices change.

If you need assistance writing your employee handbook or simply would like it reviewed, Innova HR Solutions can help. Contact us to get started!!