A good employee handbook can provide employees with a reference guide and assist with ensuring legal compliance. If a business has even one employee, best practice solutions means an employee handbook is needed. If you own a small business and are acting as your own HR department on top of your day job, you may feel over-whelmed by the task of creating one, let alone maintaining and updating such a fluid document. All Points Advising can help!
Once you make the decision to create a handbook the next step is to come up with a plan. Regardless of your decision – write your own or outsource to HR or legal professionals – you will need to consider what issues and policies need to be included. Some of these will be required by federal law and others will depend on your state and city. Professional and industry requirements will also be necessary. If you have employees working in multiple states you will also need to consider how to include the respective state and local information. All written policies should demonstrate compliance to applicable laws and your company’s commitment to comply with the law, as well as reflect actual employment practices.
Remember, a good employee handbook will communicate to your employees a general overview and clear presentation of their employer’s expectations. Avoiding internally inconsistent policies – addressable by disclaimers within the handbook – is important. Regardless of whether you create your own handbook or outsource the work, always have the final product reviewed by your legal counsel.
For further questions, or if you are interested in having All Points Advising assist you with a handbook review or update, please let us know!
