Practical HR insight on handbooks from fellow blogger

Inspired by our recent posts, “Getting off to good start in 2005: Review your employee handbook” and “Suggestions and links for creating or updating employee handbook,” Diane M. Pfadenhauer’s blog adds to the discussion on employee handbooks.

It’s nice to hear some input from someone who has experienced the problems and frustrations HR folks experience in the real world when they struggle for recognition and power within organizations.

Indeed, Diane describes herself as “both an employment lawyer and an HR professional having spent over 20 years inside corporations in senior human resources roles and as in-house labor and employment counsel.”

Her blog’s purpose is “to enable the legal profession to understand the strategic role and opportunity of human resources within organizations and to enable human resources professionals to understand the practical implications of employment laws.”



I think we could say that about our own Blawg here as well. One of these days, I’ll write a rambling post about what I’ve learned about the relationship between the HR and employment law professions (hint: it should be much closer).

Essentially, Diane’s post in her Strategic HR Lawyer blog highlights problems that occur when nice handbooks are created, but viewed as the domain of HR alone, with other departments ignoring them and/or going it alone in creating additional policies.

Great points Diane! Please feel free to comment, correct, dispute, agree, disagree, link, or whatever regarding our Blawg and we’ll do the same with yours!

Apparently Diane did not disagree too much with anything we said on the subject; her post simply adds a whole new dimension that never occurred to me, but must be considered. Her suggestions are great, so read what she has to say.

Diane’s post is: “More on Employee Handbooks”

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