How to Create a Useful Employee Handbook

If your procedures and policies aren’t currently documented, they need to be. A written policy and procedure guide can help keep your team up-to-speed on the expectations that you have of them. Consider it a quick and easy reference for your employees to use to answer their questions. In light of this, here’s some tips to keep in mind as you put together your business’ employee handbook.

Tip One: Cover Everything that Your Business Requires

As you’re putting together your handbook, you need to figure out precisely what you want every member of your team to know. This will give your team the advantage of knowing what is expected of them, along with the other information that they will need to know, like:

• FMLA information
• Non-discrimination policies
• Sexual harassment policies
• Worker’s compensation policies

 You should also include some of your other policies, including:

• Paid-time off policy
• Payment times and promotion/review policy
• Employee behavior expectations
• Employee dress code
• Benefit structure
• Remote work policy
• Social media and employee device policy

Of course, this should also include your company’s mission, history, and other information pertaining to your company culture to help keep your team all on the same page.

Tip Two: Prioritize Your Layout

To make your handbook as useful to your employees as possible, you need to organize it to have the most applicable and commonly needed information in the beginning. Of course, you also need to ensure that every policy included is explained in detail. Focus on providing a complete summary of your processes with a thorough step-by-step guide.

Tip Three: Keep It Updated

While your company policies need to be firmly established, there also needs to be flexibility to allow these policies to evolve over time. For instance, if a policy were to prove itself insufficient in the face of technological changes, that policy needs to be adjusted. As a result, you need to keep a digital version of your handbook—which will allow your handbook to be kept succinct and clear.

While this may seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill, a quality handbook is an essential resource for your administrative purposes. For assistance in designing your IT policies, reach out to i-medIT at 630-549-6199.