Why It’s Important to Update Your Employee Handbook and How To Do It

If you ever thought having an employee handbook is unnecessary, think again.

A well-formulated employee handbook is one of the most essential documents for your business.  This important tool serves many purposes, from introducing the culture of your organization to communicating expectations and policies. It also helps create a legal buffer zone between your company and potential employment-related lawsuits. It should be the foundational reference document for any organization.

With the only constant being change, the contents of an employee handbook can quickly become out dated, misleading or ambiguous. These factors can quickly open your company up to a high level of risk. For these reasons, employee handbooks should be reviewed carefully and updated regularly. While there’s no standardized format for them, best practices include assessing any important changes to company policies and procedures; incorporating recent changes to state, federal or international employment laws; and making updates that reflect changes to employee benefits.

How should you go about updating your employee handbook? We’ve outlined five general steps in the process.

Step 1: If you don’t have one, create one.

While you’re not legally required to create an employee handbook, having written policies and procedures is an HR best practice. Not only does this inform your employees about your company’s expectations, work rules and culture, it also affords a level of protection against employee litigation.

While all employee handbooks differ, here are some of the most common sections that should be included.

Handbook disclaimer

Explain that the employee handbook is not an employment agreement or contract. Any such paperwork should be completed at or before onboarding and stored in the employee’s personnel file.

Company orientation

This might include a history of your organization along with vision statements and your company’s mission, goals and culture. You should also point new employees to important resources, such as your company intranet and administrative/HR contact information. You might even outline a set of employee rights here.

EEO policies

Your EEO section should specify protected employee characteristics and your policies for ensuring this protection. The vast majority of employers are covered by EEO laws, making this section particularly important. That said, it also helps establish a more inclusive workplace.

Safety guidelines

While this section is helpful for all organizations, it’s essential for businesses at which employees regularly engage in potentially hazardous activity. Specify operating procedures, required equipment and other stipulations that ensure the safety of your workforce

Employee classifications and other employment-related policies

Here you’ll detail policies related to scheduling, full/part-time status, expected work hours, etc. With the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule looming or already in place, clear explanations here are an important part of your employee handbook.

Benefits 

Your benefits information should include leave policies, paid time off, retirement, health insurance, etc. And don’t forget auxiliary benefits if you have them, like a wellness program, ID theft protection, mental health assistance program or whatever else you offer.

Code of conduct

This covers expected employee behavior toward others, technology use policies, social media rules, harassment, anti-discrimination, etc. Consider your company’s values and the work environment you want to foster as you develop these expectations. An internet use policy could also go here.

Disciplinary policies

Explain how the company responds to conduct violations or other disciplinary issues, including termination procedures. Be sure to include processes to resolve employee conflicts, unfair treatment claims and other situations that can arise.

Policies driven by current, relevant, societal issues

Your employee handbook should also include emergency preparedness plans, disease management and vaccination policies, telework and other situations that arise in today’s world.

Performance reviews

Inform employees about how performance is assessed and at what intervals. Also include policies for raises so they understand what to expect.

Acknowledgment of receipt

The last page of your employee handbook should include a place for a physical or digital signature from the employee. This documents that they have received and understand the handbook and its contents.

Step 2: Review your handbook annually and identify necessary changes and additions.

Check your employee handbook thoroughly every year to see if updates are necessary. These could be prompted by changes to company policies, procedures, philosophy, organizational structure, etc. Consider both recent changes and forecasted changes that will take effect once the updated version is distributed to employees.

While reviewing, pay attention to the following:

• Language that could turn the handbook into an implied contract
• Language that could include unintended legal obligations for the employer or employee
• Existing local, state and federal laws governing your company’s employment practices and policies
• Language verifying how your company maintains and follows its policies and legal requirements
• Your company’s organizational structure
• Issues with disclaimers or lack thereof (for example, at-will provisions and the employers’ right to update the handbook at any time)
• Policies and procedures covering a multitude of areas, such as equal opportunity employment, anti-discrimination, harassment, wage policies and employee conduct
• Benefits and compensation policies
• Other issues with language throughout the document, such as ambiguous statements, misleading statements, or sections that don’t reflect actual company policies and procedures

You might also find the need to add new sections to your employee handbook. Let’s say you’ve never addressed tattoos and piercings, but they’ve become more commonplace amongst your employee population. You may want to include new language specifying permissible tattoo and piercing locations, content or amounts in your dress code policy.

Step 3: Create an Employee Handbook Update Plan

Once the necessary changes are determined, craft a plan of execution. Depending on the updates, this could be a lengthy endeavor—making an organized execution plan essential. There are numerous ways to do this:

Top-to-bottom approach

This involves updating each section of your employee handbook in order. If your changes are fairly minor or routine and you haven’t uncovered urgent issues, this is a good approach.

High-to-low priority

Create a priority list and organize your sectional updates based on higher or lower priority. This approach is common when you have a time-sensitive update—for example, a change in employment law that directly impacts the policies outlined in your employee handbook.

Assign updates to relevant departments

You could ask other departments at your organization to make updates (or at least help you with them) based on their applicable expertise. For example, you might task your IT department with updating a section of your employee handbook that details use of technology and internet safety.

Whichever method you choose, establish and stick to a clearly-defined schedule for better (and timelier) results.

Step 4: Bring in outside expertise.

HR consultants are experienced in identifying where an employee handbook may be lacking. Even if you have internal HR personnel, an outside perspective can ensure your new policies are compliant and will serve you well. They know a thorough handbook could be beneficial if an employee sues your company over matters your handbook covers. Conversely, an ambiguously written, misleading and outdated employee handbook could be the proof that employee needs to win their case.

In addition to your HR consultant, have the handbook reviewed by legal counsel. Your employee handbook is a legal document, making this a highly recommended step. Although it’s not a contract, courts will treat the employee handbook as a piece of evidence in employment-related lawsuits—even if you have a disclaimer intending to avoid implied contract issues. So ensure the document avoids language that could be used against your company.

Step 5: Send your updated handbook to your employees.

It’s launch time! You finally get to send your employee handbook to your workforce. As we mentioned earlier, require employees to either digitally or physically sign to attest they have received it and acknowledge its contents.

Send your employee handbook in both digital and physical formats if possible. Keeping a digital version available on your company’s intranet is an excellent way to guarantee employees always have access to the handbook. It also allows you to easily update the document as necessary.

Depending on the demographics of your company, you may also need to have your employee handbook translated into different languages or produced in an audio or Braille format to meet EEOC requirements for visually impaired workers.

Finally, not all updates to your employee handbook need to be made and sent to employees at the same time every year. If an update is needed immediately due to pressing legal consequences, make and send it as soon as possible. Other, less urgent updates can be sent later if they’re not ready. Sure, employees may not enjoy signing acknowledgment documents multiple times. But there’s no harm in sending multiple employee handbook updates .

If you’re not sure when you last reviewed your employee handbook—or you don’t have one at all—reach out to James Moore’s HR Solutions team. Whether you’re building a manual from scratch or just making a few tweaks, we’re here to help.

All content provided in this article is for informational purposes only. Matters discussed in this article are subject to change. For up-to-date information on this subject please contact a James Moore professional. James Moore will not be held responsible for any claim, loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any information within these pages or any information accessed through this site.