Design Your Own Effective Employee Handbook: How to Make the Most of Your Staff, by Michelle L Devon

It is likely that your company already has many rules and regulations that are in effect for its employees. Whether or not it's acceptable to smoke in the building, where and when employees are allowed to eat lunch, and even as simple as what time the employee should report to work each day, there are many rules that most of the employees already know.

There may also be many other rules and regulations your company has that perhaps the employees are not as familiar with, and this means that each time an issue arises, the owner, the human resources director, or a manager has to figure out what these rules are as you go along.

On top of all the above, there may be laws at the federal, state, and local level with which your company is required to be in compliance, and perhaps you or your employees aren't even aware of them. An employee handbook that is researched and properly formatted and written will help prevent future legal problems from arising, because someone in the company simply wasn't aware of a regulation that had never been communicated to them. With an employee handbook available, you now have an effective means of providing that communication, and protecting yourself, your company, and your employees from future problems.

Owners, managers, department heads, and human resources staff spend a large percentage of their time dealing with employee relations and relaying applicable rules and regulations to the staff. When there are no clear, written policies on employee and company benefits, rules, and regulations, the people in charge are left having to answer questions and do a 'learn as you go' type of management system. This can result in uneven and sometimes unfair application of the rules and regulations throughout the organization, not to mention a loss of time and resources that must be expended to develop these regulations as the issues arise.

An employee handbook can keep you from having to 'reinvent the wheel' every time an issue, question, or dispute arises. While it may take a little bit of time to properly develop and implement an employee handbook, once the solid foundation is created, the handbook provides a means of reference for both the employer and the employee to consult when these issues do occur.

When employees have documentation to which they can refer that answers most of their basic questions pertaining to their work environment, they do not have to turn to other staff or management to answer these questions for them. The answers are already spelled out in the employee handbook in a clear and concise manner.

If an employee's child becomes ill, he or she may want to know what family medical leave is available to them. Perhaps an employee’s spouse has to travel out of state for some reason and the employee wants to go along. He or she would need to know what the vacation time policy is and whether he or she is eligible to take the time off to make the trip. Sometimes, it can be a simple question like, "Do employees get to take breaks during the day?" or a question as complex as, "My supervisor said he would not promote me because I am a woman, and he wants a man in that position. Isn't that discrimination?"

When an employee does ask a supervisor or human resources person for more information, the supervisor or HR staff can either refer the employee to the handbook, or find the answer quickly and easily in the handbook themselves. Smaller issues like what time the work day starts, where the break rooms are located, and what the company policy is on personal telephone calls during work hours can be addressed almost completely through an employee handbook.

Other issues, such as discrimination and legality cannot be fully addressed in an employee handbook. For those larger issues, though, an employee handbook can communicate the company policy on those issues and provide information on where employees should turn should they require additional action on an issue.

When a company’s employees have a well written, properly formatted, and thoroughly developed employee handbook, that handbook provides them with a first point of contact for answering their questions, and then gives them the necessary steps to take should the handbook not address those issues in depth. Because of this, managers, owners, human resources staff, and department heads will save much time in referring to a well written handbook that addresses common, specific issues, and as we all know, time is money.

So, what does an employee handbook do for your company?

* Provides written documentation of the rules and regulations
* Saves time, resources, and money
* Provide communication between management and staff
* Potentially provides legal protection
* Spells out privileges and responsibilities for staff and company

As you can see, there are many benefits for having an effective employee handbook, but the bottom line is that an employee handbook saves time and money, and in business, your ultimate goal is to be as effective and profitable as possible.

Design Your Own Effective Employee Handbook: How to Make the Most o... is published by Atlantic Publishing Company.

This 288 page, information filled guide to creating an employee handbook with the companion CD-ROM containing important forms to help easily create an effective employee handbook for your company, organization or group.

This is a must have for small to midsized businesses or any employee who works in human resources and is responsible for managing handbooks and employee guides.