Tips for Developing Your First Employee Handbook

An employee handbook articulates your organization’s key policies, internal structures, laws, and regulations, but also creates an important first impression for new hires during the onboarding process. For this reason, it should offer a compelling organizational narrative that promotes your mission, values, and vision while relaying all essential information about your organization’s processes, benefits administration, and more.

For existing employees, the employee handbook is a touchstone resource that answers important FAQs, explains (and justifies) decision-making processes, and offers clear information regarding available benefits, perks, and pathways to promotion. It also offers certain legal protections to your organization in the event of a legal challenge, which we explore in depth in our related article.

In this article, we’ll offer tips on how to develop your first employee handbook to support onboarding, employee awareness of organizational policies, and protect your organization from legal challenges now and in the future.

Determine Key Information & Prepare an Outline

Before considering the stylistic or promotional approaches you’d like to incorporate into your employee handbook, you’ll need to determine which key information you want to include and how you plan to present it.

Most employee handbooks are roughly 30-40 pages in length and include some or all of the following features:

A Company Culture Guide that shares your mission, vision, and values statements, as well as any “biographical” information you’d like to include about your company that enhances the onboarding process.
Legal Information and HR Resources, ranging from statements regarding at-will employment, equal opportunity employment, and contract disclaimers, to information about federal and state laws (FMLA, COBRA, FLSA, ADA, and other anti-discrimination laws).
Organizational Policies regarding anything from social media use to drug testing requirements and other employment-related processes.
Operational Procedures, including any that are specific to your company (how to use time and attendance tools, where to acquire a company ID card, etc.). This should also include any safety procedures, as well emergency procedures and related contact information.
Benefits, Perks, and Time-Off Information, where you outline core benefits as well as any additional wellness programming, perks, or opportunities for incentives, awards, earned PTO, etc.
A Description of Disciplinary Protocols, which protects your organization and employees in the event of an internal or departmental dispute
A Legal Disclaimer: an additional layer of legal protection, which we’ll explore in a later section

Use Legally Sound but Onboarding-Friendly Language

Although it’s essential to use language discerningly within the employee handbook to avoid employees’ rights violations, legal disputes, or other potential liabilities, remember that the audience of the employee handbook is ultimately the employee: either a brand-new hire or an existing staff member who may see the employee handbook as the organization’s foundational document.

New hires often get acquainted with your organization before starting work, so the employee handbook is likely to be their first engagement with your organization, including what it stands for, what it strives to achieve, and how it aims to support employees through its policies, benefits, and perks. These central principles of your organization should be relayed in a stylized, engaging, and relatable way that encourages employee alignment with your values and a sense of enthusiasm about joining the organization and its culture. To increase engagement with your employee handbook, consider making your company culture guide and HR materials a narrated “story” as much as possible. The opposite approach – offering only rote, uninviting legalese – makes it less likely that the new hire or employee will familiarize themselves with key materials and also risks creating a poor first impression of the company and its culture.

Clearly Outline Escalation Process, Promotional Paths, and Other Policies

Your employee handbook should describe a clear and stringent escalation process that is bias-free and requires managers or supervisors to adhere to the process in all applicable workplace situations.

Similarly, your handbook should offer a clear description of how employees can utilize developmental pathways towards promotion, whether it’s for a management role or otherwise. This is an opportunity to encourage and support your employees’ decisions to develop skills that qualify them for pay raises or promotions. You should also include a description of how managers will inform their teams regarding new job openings, including necessary steps to qualify for new positions, promotions, or pay raises.

Beyond the two policies we’ve just explored, recognize that it’s best to articulate your organizational policies broadly enough that they can apply to a range of scenarios and contexts. Your employee handbook should state that workplace issues and situations will be addressed on a case-by-case basis and the handbook only offers general guidance that does not cover every conceivable workplace situation. This is not only accurate and truthful, but also provides an extra layer of legal protection in the event that an employee attempts to use a “by-the-letter” approach to justify a legal claim.

Anticipate Revisions and Adaptation

Much of the “first draft” of your employee handbook is likely to stay the same, but it’s also possible that you’ll need to make periodic revisions and updates for any of the following reasons:

Updates to local, state, or federal laws
Organizational changes to your health care plans (or added benefits & perks)
Changes to payroll structure (using a new system or software)
Updates to company policy

Regardless of why you need to update certain sections of your employee handbook, you’ll need to have a system in place to promptly make updates and disseminate a new (and dated) version of the handbook. From the start, it’s best to think of your employee handbook as a “living” document that will be modified over time to accurately reflect the changes in your organization, which ultimately benefits you and your employees.

Legal Procedures

We recommend the following steps to avoid legal issues resulting from misinterpretations of your employee handbook.

Consult a Lawyer

Once you’ve created a comprehensive first draft of your employee handbook, consult a lawyer who can objectively review your handbook from a legal lens. A lawyer should review the text for any wording that needs to be rephrased, and offer practical input on any sections that require further legal explanation for employees.

Include a Disclaimer

A disclaimer at the end of your handbook is a valuable layer of legal protection. Simply stating that the handbook is not a contract of employment and does not alter the employee’s at-will employment relationship can protect you from future legal headaches. This disclaimer should also state that the policies expressed within the handbook are not a contract either, emphasizing the intended scope of the handbook and its purpose as a “general purpose” guide.

Mandate Signed Acknowledgment

Remember to request that each employee sign, date, and confirm that they have received and reviewed a copy of your employee handbook. This protects your organization if an employee claims that they were unaware of company policies due to a lack of access to the handbook. Be sure to keep a copy of their signed acknowledgment on file in their employee record.

Develop Your Employee Handbook and Streamline Onboarding with Cello HR

Formulating an employee handbook is just one important step towards focusing on your greatest organizational asset: your employees. Cello HR can help you develop a handbook that keeps your organization legally protected while communicating policies and benefits that make new hires and existing employees feel welcomed, valued, and supported by their employer. As part of this process, we offer HCM technology to streamline and integrate your hiring, onboarding, scheduling, payroll, time and attendance, and more into a single consolidated platform.