Why issue an employee handbook?

Many companies, large and small, routinely issue employee handbooks to employees when they come on the payroll. These handbooks set forth the company's policies and practices from A to Z. They give employees a quick, handy place where they can go to read about the policies.

Reasons for a handbook

The decision to issue an employee handbook can involve many factors, including the size of the business, the profit picture of the business, and the nature of the business. You should consider issuing a handbook if you want your employees to understand:

• What you expect of them and what they can expect of you;

• 2. What your policies on wages, working conditions, and benefits are;

• 3. How much time, thought, and money go into making their jobs secure;

• 4. What your company's service to customers is;

• 5. What place your company has in the community and the industry; and

• 6. What makes your company a good place to work.

Recruiting. An employee handbook can have other benefits. It can be used as a recruiting tool. If it is well written, complete and attractive, it can be used to illustrate to prospective employees what your company is all about. The employee handbook portrays an image of the company, and many prospective employees will initially judge a company on the basis of the handbook.

Complaint resolution. With company policies and work rules clearly spelled out in the handbook, many complaints and misunderstandings can be dealt with quickly and easily. A handbook will help get rid of the guessing as to just what the policy is. If there is a misunderstanding, either party can turn to the handbook and see the issue discussed there in black and white. Also, it is a guard against formulating an individual policy for individual situations which could result in unequal and even unlawful activity.

Since the handbook can be used as a way to deal with complaints, it is important that employers mean what they say in the handbook. If a manager sticks to the policies in the handbook and doesn't change them to fit each employee's complaint, employees will learn that this handbook is really the policy of the company and respect it as that. Continually changing and bending the policies as set forth in the handbook will most likely result in the book becoming merely a worthless document, without respect and benefit. Once employees realize that what's in the handbook is really going to be enforced, they will stop bringing complaints to management in an attempt to modify a particular policy.

Handbooks do not tie the hands of management, but ensure that there is equal and consistent application of the rules. If discrimination or unemployment claims are brought against the company, the agencies will want to see what rules and procedures were applied; so it is a good idea to have them readily available in a handbook.

Security. An employee handbook also gives employees a sense of security --a sense of really being part of something. All the rules and policies are set forth in one place, and the employees know what is expected of them; all they have to do is turn to the handbook.

Employee handbooks help give employees recognition, a sense of being "in" on things, can offer them help on any problems they might have, and can provide job security. Of course, handbooks cannot do it all; companies still need orientation for new employees and an on-going system of responding to employee questions and complaints.

Management framework. But employee handbooks can provide an important framework for managing employees. Furthermore, the process of preparing an employee handbook can itself prove to be a valuable experience for an employer. By preparing an employee handbook, an employer is afforded an important opportunity to reexamine its policies and the level of understanding among managers, supervisors and employees respecting those policies. Indeed, by allowing employees to participate in the process, effective communication of the policies is better ensured.