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By the Book

Creating an employee handbook could save you from future problems.
by MARGOT CARMICHAEL LESTER - January 2009

Published in Books :: Books

CREATING AND IMPLEMENTING AN EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK COULD SAVE YOU FROM A FUTURE OF LEGAL WOES. HERE'S HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN--IT'S EASIER THAN YOU MAY THINK.

For most small companies, employee handbooks seem like an unnecessary burden reserved for big corporations with layers of bureaucratic dysfunction. And what busy business owner has time to create one, anyway?

"It simply doesn't feel that important in the early stages when you have the responsibility to do everything from hiring to strategy to changing the paper towels in the bathroom", says Tony Schy, a partner in Chapman Kelly Inc., a 30-employee health benefits consulting firm in Jeffersonville, IN. "Many small businesses hire friends and family that they know and trust. Thus, there's a false sense of security, and a handbook is overkill."

Maybe so. But in a world where we change jobs frequently-and where employment regulations change even more rapidly-a good employee handbook is invaluable for workers and employers alike. Here's what you need to know about creating a handy guide:

DETERMINE WHAT'S IMPORTANT

"Make sure you document the big areas of employee concern so there aren't issues down the road,"says Josh King, vice president of business development and general counsel for Avvo, a Seattle-based website that reviews and ranks lawyers, and provides free legal advice. "At a minimum, document your policies around holidays, vacations, sick leave and time reporting, as employees always have questions about these matters, and you don't want hiring managers creating special deals for people, Mention any specific grounds for termination, and, if you have time, how employees will be evaluated."

GET A LAWYER

Next, ask an attorney what matters must be addressed from a legal standpoint. "Your informal practices may become instituonalized, and employees would then come to expect certain fringe benefits, etc., that you might not really want to offer once you grow to a certain size," says Neal Wolgin, a partner at the Durham, NC-based law firm Tillman Wright PLLC, who works with start-up and early-stage companies. "Its one thing to have informal procedures that you ignore in pratice, but quite another to have written policies that might violate wage and hour laws."

Legal counsel is crucial because employee handbooks provide legal protection. "A company can preserve its right to fire employees at will, protect itself from liability for harassment claims, determine how it will administer certain aspects of family and medical leave, and put employees on notice that their electronic communications are not private, all in its employee handbook,"says Lisa Guerin, co-aauthor of Create Your Own Employee Handbook and a legal editor for Nolo, the Berkeley, CA-based provider of law books, legal forms and software.

SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP

If you're not a great writer or just don't have time to devote to the project, hire a consultant to lend a hand. John Jorgensen, founder of HR Consulting and Educating in Joliet, IL, often works with small- and medium-sized companies to create handbooks. "Companies can usually find people to help by checkimg with other firms in their area or field, or checking with local management associations, chambers of commerce and the Society of Human Resource Professionals."If you don't have the resources to hire a pro, templates are available online from many sources.

SET THE RIGHT TONE

An employee handbook should reflect the company's culture. "The tone demonstrates how the company and its leadership view the employee population as whole, "says Sarah Kee, director of human resources for NY-based Mimeo.com, a provider of online, on-demand document printing and distribution.

IF your enterprise is laidback and relaxed, a more conversational tone would be appropriate. If you're in a serious business, you might want to sound more conservative. Consider the differences between words like worker, team member and partner; or should, must and encourage. "The subtle differences among these words alone play a significant part in the tone of the handbook,"Kee says.

MAKE IT ACESSIBLE

A handbook doesn't do much good siting on the shelf unused. Avvo's handbook is available via the house wiki, making it easy for employees to acess. At RAleigh, NC-based RBC Bank, personnel policies are located on the human resources department's intranet site, as well as an enterprise-wide policy and procedure library. "All of our employees have access to all workplace policies with the click of a mouse,"says Melissa Tillman, the bank's manager of employee relations and policy governance.

UPDATE IT REGULARLY

In highly regulated industries, it is critical to frequently update the hand book. "All of our workplace policies are reviewed on an ongoing basis-at least bi-annually," Tillman says. "Other triggers for review include regulatory requirements such as changes in or new employment-related legislation, maketplace or industry influences, and business requirements."

Workforce trends might also prompt a revision. "We updated this summer to clarify our policies around paternity leave, as three of our developers became first-time fathers in short order and there were a lot of questions,"King says.

KEEP IT RELEVANT

To maintain the handbook's usefulness, keep it at the top of people's minds. Chapman Kelly addresses one section of its guide each week during a daily "huddle." "If we implement this program as part of the huddle, we're showing our employees that it's not just a policy, but also a guide on day-to-day behaviors," Schy says.

Developing a useful, relevant and appropriate employee handbook takes time and resources, but it's well worth the effort.

"Taking the time to think through what the company's policies should be is a valuable planning process,"Guerin says. "Don't put it off. It's a task that tends to slip towards the bottom of the to-do list, but it shouldn't. The benefits of having a good handbook-including the legal risks it can help a company avoid-are significant, and it's not hard to create one."

THE BARE ESSENTIALS

Lisa Guerin, co-author of Create Your Own Employee Handbook, suggests including at least these basic elements:

* THE COMPANY'S HISTORY AND MISSION
* AT-WILL EMPLOYMENT (IF APPLICABLE)
* EMPLOYEE CLASSIFICATIONS
* WAGES AND HOURS
* BENEFITS
* LEAVE AND TIME OFF
* PERFORMANCE, CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINE
* HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUES
* USE OF COMPANY PROPERTY
* COMPUTERS, EMAIL AND USE OF OTHER TECHNOLOGY
* PRIVACY ISSUES
* DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT
* COMPLAINT PROCEDURES
* TRADE SECRETS AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
* ENDING EMPLOYMENT

Published in Books :: Books

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