Michael’s early January post suggesting that the start of a new year was a great time to review and update employee handbooks (“Getting off to good start in 2005: Review your employee handbook”) drew a lot of interest (currently the year’s third most viewed post, but who’s counting?).
Maybe that post and the article to which it linked said it all — but in case it didn’t I’m here now to add some more . . . both my own thoughts and a cornucopia of links for handbook writers.
First, my answers to a few fundamental questions.
1) Should an employer have an employee handbook?
Same answer as with a formal written employee evaluation. One that’s prepared and reviewed thoroughly and properly customized to the job and employee (if an evaluation) or employer (if a handbook) is great. But one done poorly, by rote, and without proper attention to detail can be worse than none at all, and can actually increase the risk of legal problems. Like a poorly prepared employee evaluation, poorly chosen words in a handbook can become opposing counsel’s “Exhibit A.”
So my answer?
Have a handbook, do it right, and follow it; otherwise skip it.
2) How can an employer streamline the handbook creation and revision process and make it more efficient and cost-effective?
Having worked on many handbooks, I’ve frequently contemplated this question. Candidly, hiring an attorney by the hour to do the whole job from scratch is probably not the best answer in many situations. On the other hand, I’d also advise against skimping entirely on legal assistance or seeking it only at the tail end of the process. Instead, I’d make legal counsel an integral member of the project team.
Many cookie cutter, template-style do-it-yourself options are commercially available, as are some actual handbooks on the Internet, typically those of public employers (some of both are linked below). Most of the former say they were prepared by legal and HR experts. To the extent this is true such standardized handbooks may be unlikely to cause major legal problems.
But to be truly useful and effective, as opposed to simply benign, a good handbook needs to reflect the existing practices, preferences, and needs of the particular workplace.
Implementation of a handbook should not involve revolutionary changes in all or most policies. If it does, it probably won’t be followed.
Furthermore, it should communicate more than just the nuts and bolts of policies, rules, and wages and benefits. A good handbook serves as an introduction to the company’s unique history, culture, goals, values, and organizational structure. For these reasons, preparing a good handbook requires considerable customization.
It is also important that the handbook take into account state and local law variations. These may not be adequately reflected in the do-it-yourself materials, requiring further customization based upon legal advice.
If starting from scratch, I’d suggest using a variety of these do-it-yourself resources and publicly available handbooks for inspiration and building blocks, rather than treating a particular one as a complete, out-of-the-box solution.
Each topic covered by sample or template manuals should be grounds for joint management/HR discussion as to: 1) what is the company’s current policy?; 2) what should the policy be?; and 3) how can it be most clearly expressed in plain English?
After drafting a manual in-house in this manner, I would then send it to in-house or outside employment counsel for legal review. This is a task that outside counsel should be willing to undertake for a flat fee. I am.
Alternatively, attorney involvement at an earlier stage may actually be more efficient. As part of a project team, an experienced employment lawyer can provide input into much more than just passing on the lawfulness of specific handbook provisions and insisting on the appropriate “cya” language.
We have seen so many workplace problems and issues, particularly if we have been involved in administering collective bargaining agreements, that we can anticipate and prevent many potential misunderstandings and conflicts. And we fancy ourselves capable of clear and precise writing.
If updating an existing handbook, the best process will depend on how well the handbook was prepared — and how long ago. Normally, this has been the context of my involvement, and at times I have struggled with the efficiency question, feeling I was making so many changes that it would be easier to scrap the whole thing and start fresh. In fact, I did this at least once, with very nice results.
3) Do you have any other practical tips?
Make sure you’ve protected employment at will to the max.
It is also important to reserve the right to change all policies.
Written proof of each employee’s receipt of the handbook is essential and should be part of their personnel file.
Consider the details of “publication”:
If you print many copies of a complete handbook, you’ll get stuck with a bunch of obsolete handbooks when you need to make a change. I suggest instead issuing the manual in three-ring binders, with each policy or section on a fresh page, so new pages can be swapped in easily (just be sure to get fresh employee acknowledgements).Use a footer on each page with the effective date of the policy.
Use your word processor’s automatic table of contents and index features, and automatically number policies in an outline format that allows appropriate insertion of new policies in their logical place.
Oh yeah, as you change the handbook, keep a meticulous archive, so if you need to prove in a lawsuit what version of a changed policy was in effect on a particular date, you can easily do so.
Now, onward to my handpicked resources.
Here are some tips from the folks at Paychex, who very reasonably state in How to write an employee handbook:
Writing an employee handbook sounds simple and straightforward, yet it can actually be more complicated than expected.
(Did I say that?)
Another article full of good tips: CREATING AN EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK (Excerpted from “Small Business Success” magazine, Volume X, produced by Pacific Bell Directory in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the
Partners for Small Business Excellence)
Black letter business law publisher CCH has a Business Owner’s Toolkit, including the following:
Why have employee handbooks?
What Should Go in the Handbook
Putting a Handbook Together
Personnel Policy Service sells a Personnel Policy Manual Service as well as a less expensive handbook maker, Instant HR Policies. I bought the former for our firm, as I was quite impressed that each policy is followed by detailed endnotes containing legal authorities and explanations for virtually every sentence of every policy.
Here’s another low-priced example of the ready-made computerized manual maker product: Sample employee handbook template for download (only $29.95) “Professional graphic designers enhanced the final product for high-quality presentation.”
That’s very nice. Although frankly I’d be much less concerned with looks than with substance, high-quality appearance is a nice plus, especially for smaller company that isn’t about to hire professional graphic designers to make their handbook pretty.
As I said, I’d sure be careful and do lots of adaptation and consulting rather than adopting one of these out-of-the-box. But for the price, I’d sure consider buying one or more of them as a resource and starting point.
Here’s one for only $34.95: Our Employee Handbook Template can be completely customized in just minutes! “With all of the great benefits of our Employee Handbook Template, Expense Policy and Employment Contract, there’s no reason not to buy our complete package today. So order now - and get all the protection an employee handbook offers you!”
All the protection, and hopefully none of the problems; as I’ve said handbooks can be a two-edged sword.
I like the price on this one: free from the government (your tax dollars at work). The Company Employee Handbook on the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Center site.
This is free too: a mega-handbook site, with keyword-searcheable access to numerous public entity handbooks.
There you have it. No more excuses. Whip up that handbook. . . .
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