Why Every Company Should Have an Employee Handbook
Focusing on corporate culture benefits, this blog is the second in a three part series. These articles are developed from the ComplianceHR whitepaper: Seven+ Reasons Why Every Organization Should Have an Employee Handbook. If you are interested in the whitepaper, download it here.
How to Introduce Employees to Corporate Culture
Successfully onboarding new employees is critical to their job satisfaction and the impact they will make in the future. Considering the significant recruiting costs associated with finding new workers, most companies do a poor job of introducing their newest team members to the organization and its unique culture.
Your employee handbook can help solve this challenge.
Employee handbooks provide a vehicle to communicate your unique corporate culture to new employees during their onboarding, while also reinforcing it to the rest of the team. By sharing your core ideology–the mission, values, and purpose of your organization–you have a great opportunity to build a common foundation. It also defines how employees fit in and how they can contribute. This is a great tool for HR teams and leaders to build a positive and productive work environment.
The introductory section of the employee handbook should build and reinforce your corporate culture. It also sets the standard for the employment relationship. By sharing your organization’s core ideology, you provide context and meaning for the rest of the policies in the handbook.
Highlight the Benefits You Offer
Most organizations choose to offer their employees a benefits package. Your employee handbook is a great vehicle to highlight all the company sponsored benefits you offer.
Your employee handbook is a powerful communication tool to make sure employees know the important details on benefits such as paid vacations, paid parental and sick leave, health insurance plans, retirement plans, etc. It can provide an overview of your benefits, along with the associated eligibility policies and requirements.
By showcasing the benefits your organization offers to employees, an employee handbook can reinforce your unique employer value proposition. Also, it eases the communication burden on your HR and Benefits professionals and helps them educate employees on the options available.
Set Expectations for New Employees
In addition to highlighting your organization’s core ideology and benefits offering, your employee handbook can serve the important function of helping to set proper expectations for your employees while they are at work.
A well-written handbook provides employees with a clear understanding of their rights and responsibilities. It does this by providing clear and accessible
information on common employee topics like hours of work, pay periods, vacation policy and how to request time off, sick leave, cell phone use, work attire, workplace safety, timekeeping, and more. It should also provide guidance on the proper procedures to follow and advise them on whom they should contact with questions about any of the topics or policies in the handbook.
Reinforce What to Expect from Leadership
Another important benefit of employee handbooks is they educate employees about what to expect from company management and leadership. This provides a matching benefit of reinforcing expectations for company managers and leaders, and making sure they apply them equally to all employees!
By setting clear expectations for your company leaders and managers, your employee handbook can help to eliminate confusion and inconsistencies about their roles and responsibilities. Your handbook becomes the standard employment playbook that all employees and managers follow. This reduces the risk of inconsistent or incorrect application of employment laws and policy enforcement, and substantially lowers your risk. When everyone follows the employee handbook you are assured of consistent interpretation, application, and enforcement of company policies. By following approved processes, you eliminate the common practice of informal policies, which are often applied inconsistently, that can open your organization up to costly and time-consuming employee litigation.
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About ComplianceHR
ComplianceHR offers the only on-demand, intelligent suite of compliance applications focused on helping companies address the ever-changing federal and state employment law requirements on many common HR topics such as minimum wage, overtime, independent contracting, and more.
We provide employers of all industries, sizes, and locations with solutions that empower employers to handle complex compliance issues with less time, cost, and complexity than traditional methods. The Navigator Suite simplifies employment law compliance, allowing you to streamline your compliance workflow in only a few simple clicks.
One of our most popular applications, PolicySmart, is an intuitive handbook compliance tool that provides employers with national and state specific templates, a unique compliance timeline, and so much more. Fueled by the subject matter expertise of Littler, the world’s largest employment law firm, PolicySmart allows users to easily create and maintain legally compliant handbooks that are cost effective, up-to-date, and delivered on-demand.
If you are not already a ComplianceHR client, we welcome you to sign up for a quick intro call and product demo with one of our compliance experts. After the demo we also offer a free, 14-day trial to explore all of the Navigator Suite applications and see for yourself how they can transform your compliance practices. Register for a demonstration today.
