Does Your Company have an Employee Handbook?

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Not every company does. But there are some benefits regarding company-wide rules and employee expectations.

“An employee handbook is an important legal document that – if drafted properly – can protect an employer from a number of employee problems. However, a poorly drafted handbook can wind up creating more problems than it solves. Adopting a handbook while avoiding the "pitfalls" will help keep employees happy and lawsuits to a minimum.” – Source: Avoiding Common Employee Handbook Mistakes, Joseph Gagnon and Stephen Roppolo

Some benefits of employee handbooks:

Handbooks keep everyone on the same page: A handbook typically lays out all the “must dos” at a company. Basically, handbooks outline what’s expected of employees (what normal working hours are), pay, benefits, substance and harassment policies, attendance, and discipline.

Handbooks are helpful to new employees: Having an employee handbook is a great way to get everyone on the same page.

Handbooks can help employees understand a company’s culture: Employees can get a feel for what a business “is all about” after reading its employee handbook.

Handbooks help prove that a company’s rules and regulations are current with employment laws.

Handbooks can help define the employee/employer relationship.

Sources: The Employee Handbook: the Good, the Bad, and the Absolutely Critical; Why You Should Create an Employee Handbook.

However, handbooks (and having rules that dictate everything that goes on at the office) can be overwhelming, too:

Everything is connected to a rule: If you want to discard rules, or change up the employee policy, you’ll have to change every handbook. And because a company is a constantly evolving entity, that means policies may be changing as the company evolves, too. Over time, making constant amendments is time consuming, costly and confusing.

Some situations merit individual responses: “Imagine if a senior business development executive created a set of policies outlining how they will execute a business deal that followed the process every time.  You can’t imagine it because it would never happen!  For years HR types have been complaining about having a seat at the table and being taken seriously by their executive teams, and I think this is one of the reasons why. They don’t think about what’s in the best interests of the business.” – Source: The One Sentence HR Handbook, Fistful of Talent, Andy Porter

Other issues can arise with handbooks when policies are overly vague, too detailed, outdated, and inconsistent.

Source: The Employee Handbook: The Good, the Bad, and the Absolutely Critical