Why do I need an Employee Handbook?

When companies hire the first employees, who often leave without thinking fully all the implications of what they are doing and do not have an employee manual in place. This new person is going to be representing you and your company to your customers and clients, both in your premises and access to all your knowledge and resources. Many people find that what starts with great promise ended in disaster when they have not considered all the implications.

Just take the first employee you need to seriously consider having an employee manual. The content only needs to be basic to begin with, but the benefits of having an added value to your business.

So, let's take a look at some of the reasons you need a manual.

For starters there are legal reasons. If you have an employee was immediately inherited a number of legal obligations that must be met. With most of these legal obligations if something goes wrong the first thing the court will ask is "what was your written policy on this issue." (I should know - after a certain number of years working with the Industrial Commission we have seen many cases that went before the judges!).

The type of legal areas you need to be covered include health and safety, anti-discrimination, workplace harassment, sexual harassment, bullying, racial vilification, privacy as well as the financial side of things, like paying the personnel files.

Then there are the reasons for time management - if you speak more than one person the same information will save you time having the written information and then only to information sharing.

Then there are the reasons that make life easier - if an employee has a question about a problem (eg how many days before going on leave will not notice), it is easier for them to take a quick look at the manual, rather than try to capture to ask you the question. It makes life simpler and easier for all of you.

Finally there is the reason surprises. By this I mean both you and the worker are totally clear about what will happen and when on a theme, and what process will be followed. This is particularly important for issues such as testing processes, performance, and resentment.

What should contain an employee handbook?

Your employee manual should cover off all the common questions that employees want to know. He needs to say "this is how we do things around here" and set a firm line in the sand showing the limits.

The type of information that traditionally goes in employee handbooks or manual workers include your

O position descriptions and job descriptions - what each role does.

or process of recruitment and selection - how to recruit and refer someone to control.

o New employee orientation and induction process - which process will be used to ensure that new employees know what they are doing and the rules around their jobs.

Rules or around any probationary period and how it will assess whether someone is permanently appointed.

Hours or work - and the roster of all the rules you have about punctuality, changing roster, public holidays, overtime, timesheet, friends and relatives visiting the workplace.

Or Pay Records and personnel - including pay-day, paycheck information.

or reductions for goods and services or other benefits that you offer.

or Leave - annual, sick, maternity, paternity, adoption, long term, compassionate study of jury service, ceremonial leave, leave without pay, etc.

or Moonlighting - do other work?

Termination of employment or - what rules there are around resign or be fired, the abandonment of employment, redundancy?

or privacy, confidentiality and intellectual property.

Or Appearance and dress standards.

or travel expenses and - if you need to use their resources for things or travel for their work and how what they will reimburse.

or employee performance reviews - how to lead them.

o Training and development - what training do you offer.

or Poor Performance - What happens if you do not make, what will you do?

Conduct or - this is where you cover anti-discrimination, bullying and harassment, racial vilification, health and safety at work.

or Code of Conduct - what are the minimum standards of behavior is not desired.

or Discipline and termination - what will you do if someone "crosses the line"? What is your termination process?

Alcohol or drugs and politics.

grievance procedures or - as an employee with a problem of a manager or other team member can go about getting solved.

administration or things such as certificates of service, procedures, work phone, the look, the political e-mail and blogs, policies for computers, mobile phones and personal calls, auto, equipment, distributing media inquiries , dealing with customer complaints or aggressive customers.

Yes, you will need to have a way to check the versions of the manual, how things will change. The easiest way is to keep the document as an electronic version of some form of intranet so that everyone always has the current version of the employee manual.

If you decide to keep paper-based to a folder, maintain version control as a simple note in the header or footer and reissue the entire section, rather than making a big song and dance with the papers that say take this out and put this little 'back. You want things to be easy, not hard to do!

You do need to maintain a central file of each document and any changes and the dates of these changes. I've seen too many cases before the courts in which a policy has been changed, but because the company could not produce proof of the date of the change have lost the case.