I get a lot of questions about employee handbooks.

• Do we need them?
• What purpose do they serve?
• How many pages should it be?
• What do you put inside it?
• Will it cover all situations so we just have to look it up and know what to do?

Do you need one?

Short answer – yes.

Let’s review with the what and why.

There is no specific page count and it does not have to be a 100 page encyclopedia. It needs to fit your company. It could be a one or two page sheet stating your basic policies on pay, vacation, and work expectations. I prefer something a little more thorough to avoid the “I didn’t know”. The basic handbook I put together are at least 26 pages. I know that sounds long, first it is because I believe in spacing between sections and font size 12. Yes, I have reviewed handbooks with a 8 pt font and barely any paragraphs. I want it to be easy to read. I also like to make it a quick reference for employees to learn about the company, it’s history and other policies -so it will have a table of contents.  As you see, just the things to make it easy and nice to read take several pages on their own.

I like to be thorough and have everyone find answers to the basic questions that all new employees ask as well as the one’s that come up about once a year. Let this be their resource. I’m referring to hours of work, vacation days, holidays, when do we get paid, etc.

Besides being a reference tool for employees, the handbook also serves as your backup if you have an employee/former employee file a claim against the company.  The policies in the handbook will be your backup and the signed acknowledgement shows they were are aware of the policies that you are enforcing.

The “will it cover all situations” questions is very popular and the short answer is “no”. If you really think about it, you will understand – there are so many variation on what people can do that it would be impossible to plan or foresee every possible situation. The employee handbook can cover general situations which then can be utilized to demonstrate the basis for decision you make with employees.

Lastly, you must keep it up-to-date. There are policies that you may change, laws that may be updated and change in philosophy. You can implement them separately and then wait until you have several before you change the entire handbook for distribution.

Do you have an employee handbook? Is it up-to-date? If you need assistance or have questions, please contact me at [email protected]