The Importance of an Employee Handbook
Does your organization have an Employee Handbook? If so, when is the last time you updated it? Employee Handbooks are necessary for setting expectations up front with new employees and serve as a reference for existing employees who might have specific questions. In addition, Employee Handbooks serve as a written statement of company policy, require new employees to review/sign-off on and include mandatory information from State and Federal Governments. When an employee signs off by acknowledging that they have reviewed and accepted the polices in the Employee Handbook then there is a legally enforceable agreement in place between the employer and employee.
In doing a quick scan of the Employees Only Employee Handbook, I noticed the following:
- # of Pages – 38
- The Table Of Contents has 10 unique sections
- The Handbook contains a last updated date
- Employees can access the Handbook via a centralized location
- There are 6 sections that Employees must acknowledge to reviewing and understanding
So what makes for a good Employee Handbook? This is a hard question to answer as each organization is unique but the general rule of thumb is that the Employee Handbook should provide clear advice on company policy related to such things as dress code, vacation/paid time off, benefit eligibility, harassment policy, etc.
DID YOU KNOW: If your organization is over 50 employees, your Employee Handbook must have information related to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 or FMLA
Are you in need of an Employee Handbook? In doing a quick search in Google, there are Employee Handbook templates available from great resources such as the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) and Entrepreneur.com, as well as other companies who offer services for creating an Employee Handbook.
As you work on creating/updating your Employee Handbook, our recommendation is to at least speak to a company who is an HR Subject Matter Expert. The last thing you want to happen is to use an old template to create your Employee Handbook or miss out on a new key piece of legislation that needs to be included in your Employee Handbook (ex. Americans with Disability Act or Compliance with the Affordable Care Act). A few Employee Handbook items that you will want to keep an eye out for to
ensure your handbook (or the template that you are using) is as up to date as possible include:
- Compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ADA)
- Contains a Social Media Policy
- Addresses employee utilization of their smartphone for business use
- Mileage reimbursement rate from the Federal Government is up to date
Currently, Employees Only is offering new clients the opportunity to speak with one of our HR Subject Matter Experts about their Employee Handbook and we will provide a no obligation cursory review of an existing Employee Handbook or advice for creating one. To get started, please fill out the form below and one of our representatives will get back to you within 24 hours (48 hrs if on the weekend or a holiday). We will work to coordinate a date/time to discuss your Employee Handbook and to provide our feedback (offer is good for up to 1 hour of consulting time, at no charge, for the review of an Employee Handbook).
Want to Learn More? Employees Only provides Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) solutions. We work with business owners, HR Managers and company Presidents who are frustrated with administrative tasks that do not create revenue, are tired of managing benefits and employee issues and are interested in making improvements in their organization that result in increased profit. More information can be found at www.EmployeesOnly.net .
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