How to Develop an Employee Handbook
The HR employee handbook is a must for every business.
No matter the size of an organisation, you need to clarify policies and procedures to keep things orderly. Otherwise, confusion may abound.
Here, we’ll explain how to avoid the chaos that can come from such an oversight – chiefly by explaining how to develop an employee handbook for HR policies and procedures.
Why You Need an Employee Handbook
Employee handbooks are important because they provide a way for employees and employers to clarify how to communicate and interact with each other.
These are just a few of the things employee handbooks lay out:
- The organisation’s history
- The organisation’s mission and values
- The organisation’s policies and procedures
This may make it seem as though employee handbooks benefit only organisations but they’re actually helpful to employees too.
Among other things, they lay out protections against things like harassment and discrimination, after all.
Employers generally require employees to provide written acknowledgment of handbook receipt nowadays, for safety. This is often saved in personnel records.
How to Develop an Employee Handbook – What to Put in It
1. Company Values and Mission
For the organisation to run optimally, all members of it have to be aligned. That means ensuring they act in a way that’s consonant with your stated vision, mission, and values.
That’s why you should state these things in the employee handbook. They provide an organising foundation for all of the things that follow in the document.
2. General Employment Information
As mentioned before, employee handbooks naturally have to include the basics of employment rules and policies at your workplace. That means laying out points like these in the handbook:
- The schedule for payroll and the methods for payment that you use
- The working hours for both full-time and part-time workers
- The rules on overtime pay
- The rules on when meal and rest breaks occur
- The policies on requesting and approving leaves of absence for employees
- The appraisal procedures for employees’ performance
- The safety and security procedures relating to the job
- The resignation and termination policies and procedures
- The policies on hiring new employees
Note that some of the policies here aren’t entirely up to the employer’s discretion, by the way. There are actual laws on some points, such as on overtime pay, as an example.
3. Anti-discrimination and Anti-harrassment Laws
A good employee handbook should also note relevant legislation.
As an example, there are laws in our country on equal employment, anti-harassment, and anti-discrimination. These should all be listed in the handbook, as they’re pertinent to the way things work in a company.
4. The Code of Conduct
How do you expect your employees to conduct themselves?
Should they observe particular rules in terms of apparel? Or in the way they communicate on their official accounts on social media?
This is where that gets addressed. Your employee handbook should lay out clear policies and expectations to help employees figure out how to act in a way that’s not in conflict with what they do at your organisation.
Here are some of the things your section on code of conduct should include:
- Dress code at the workplace
- Ethics and values policy
- Social media policy
- Rules on the use of company resources (including official company email accounts)
- Drug and alcohol use policy
- Data and customer privacy policy
- Conflict resolution policy
- Work relationships policy
- Gift policy (covering whether or not employees may accept gifts from customers)
5. Employee Benefits
You also have to explain in the handbook what perks or benefits your employees get and how they can avail of them.
For instance, let’s say your company has an employee health insurance plan. You want to explain in the handbook when it becomes available to an employee as well as whether or not they have options in it.
Do this for each benefit you offer, whether it’s a transportation stipend or a gym membership.
6. Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Policies
Policies of this type aren’t needed for each organisation, but if you operate in a very competitive space or one where data is highly sensitive, you need to outline these.
This is also where non-disclosure agreements are usually explained in the handbook.
7. Disciplinary Policies
Thus far, we’ve been setting out policies that employees should follow. Now, however, you also need to provide for the possibility of people not following those policies.
That’s why your handbook should also include notes on disciplinary policy. You have to outline what consequences employees will face should they choose to ignore the procedures and rules you’ve laid out.
Note here that all employees will be subject to the same disciplinary policies and that all shall be held accountable for their actions.
8. A Vital Disclaimer: The handbook is not a contract
This is a disclaimer that you need to recall as well as put in writing when you create the handbook. Employee handbooks are not binding contracts.
Stating “this handbook is not a contract” in your disclaimer should suffice to indicate that in your document. The idea here is to ensure that they’re policy documents instead, or explanations of standards of behaviour within your organisation.
This can protect you from legal action from employees who believe you did not abide by the terms of the handbook.
In Summary: The Employee Handbook
The employee handbook is clearly a crucial tool for employers and employees in setting out expectations. It serves as a guide for employees in how to conduct themselves at their jobs.
Simply follow the steps we provided above to create your own employee handbook. If you need more help figuring out how to write HR policies on other related matters, you can browse the rest of our guides and templates.
