An Employee handbook is a document that clarifies all the crucial policies and procedures of your business or company. In a sense, this document defines in detail the culture of your organization. Also known as a staff manual, an employee handbook compiles all the essential practices that you have adopted within the business.
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Dec 19, 2018 An employee handbook is a compilation of all your company's policies and protocols, as well as employees' legal rights and obligations. Having an employee handbook makes it easy for you to communicate rules and responsibilities to employees, so there's no question about what's expected from them — or from you, as the small business owner.

Starting a new position in a new company can often seem overwhelming, with lots of new faces, information, and policies to learn.

Every business should follow a set of rules and procedures to keep operations running smoothly. As your small business grows, you will need a strong employee handbook to set expectations for.

But providing your new hires with an employee handbook early on in their employment (think: first day) is a great way to make sure that the employee has all of the necessary information and also has a resource to constantly refer back to if they have any questions.

An employee handbook is the Holy Grail of your company. It contains everything about everything that anybody might need to know about working within your organization. It’s basically your company’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

While you might not include an entire section about towels, your employee handbook is one hundred percent your “Don’t Panic” document.

If you’re creating your very first employee handbook, or updating your existing one, read on. I’ll explain what you should include in your handbook, along with some employee handbook best practices and design tips. I’ve also included premade employee handbook templates and lots of employee handbook examples.

Everything you need to know about employee handbooks (click to jump ahead to each section):

An employee handbook is a document created by an employer (often the Human Resources team) to communicate employment and job-related information that employees must know. Sometimes known as an “employee manual”, “staff handbook”, “company policy manual” or even a “culture code”, employee handbooks are given to new hires after their acceptance of an offer letter.

Employee handbooks are a human resources essential, alongside HR reports, performance reviews, and incident reports, so it’s important to get right.

What is the difference between an employee handbook and a policy manual?

Employee handbooks and policy manuals can seem similar, but they are two very different things. An employee handbook tells your employees what to expect, and should be written in easy to understand language. A policy manual, on the other hand, is a document that tells your employees how to do things, and may include more technical information.

For example, in your employee handbook you will tell your employees that they can work remotely for one month each (one of the perks at Venngage!), but you don’t need to outline the nitty gritty details in your handbook. You should save the practical information such as how to request for your remote month, and what the working remotely expectations are, in the policy manual.

The information in your employee handbook should match the information in your policy manual, but it should be a taster rather than the complete policy. Think of your policy manual as your terms and conditions document.

Do I need an employee handbook?

If you haven’t devoted the time to writing and designing an employee handbook yet–you’re likely not the only one. New and small businesses in particular often neglect to produce an employee handbook. But as your company grows, it’s helpful to create a central space for all of your processes and policies to live early on.

Employee handbooks are incredibly effective in maintaining a positive workplace culture and integrating newcomers into the team. An employee handbook sets clear expectations for all employees to ensure everyone within the organization can remain on the same page. In doing so, employee handbooks help to establish a culture where issues can be dealt with fairly and consistently.

An employee handbook not only serves your new staff, but your old staff as well. At all levels and stages within your company, employee handbooks can be beneficial. As mentioned, handbooks can provide newcomers with an introduction to your company and its internal structure.

Employee handbooks can paint a clear understanding of what their supervisors expect of them. They can ensure that policies, procedures and working practices are enforced fairly and rigorously, thus eliminating confusion and misalignment within your team.

Handbooks can be a handy tool for your company to show how important your employees are to you–this is displayed through the information you deem as important in your manual (think support initiatives and inclusivity efforts).

Lastly, handbooks operate as an information communication vehicle to facilitate the integration of employees within the company while committing to fostering a feeling of belonging across teams.

What is included in an employee handbook?

Employee handbooks typically include three categories of content:.

General information including items such as your company’s mission statement, core values, policy summaries and more.
Cultural information including items such as the vacation time, company perks, holiday schedules dress code, etc.
Case-specific information including items such as company policies, disciplinary and grievance procedures, etc.

Every company will have different needs, but here is an overview of what you should include in a standard employee handbook:

Welcome Message From the Company
Company History
Company Vision and mission
Company policies
Office information and main office contact details
Employee benefits information

What should be included in an employee handbook will vary by company depending on the company size and industry. If you are a large organization with hundreds of employees, your employee handbook will likely be much larger and thorough than the employee handbook distributed within smaller and/or less bureaucratic companies.

Kumkum bhagya online desi serial. That being said, writing a great employee handbook relies on a thorough understanding of the company and its culture.

No matter the organization, most employee handbooks should cover these topics:

Company culture
Values and the mission statement
Human resource and legal information
Processes and procedures
Company policies including vacation time, sick days, bullying and harassment, etc.

An employee handbook is primarily an employee facing document, so this is the ideal place to outline your employees rights and obligations related to employment but in plain English instead of the legal-jargon native to contracts.

How do I write an employee handbook?

Click to skip ahead to each section:
Step 1: Write the outline of your employee handbook
Step 2: Design your employee handbook using a template
Step 3: Compile all of the information you have gathered into your employee handbook
Step 4: Share your finished employee handbook

If you’re creating an employee handbook for the first time, it can be beneficial to speak to members of senior management. Ask them what they think the most important thing to communicate to new hires would be. Making sure everybody is on the same page about expectations, policies, and culture from the beginning is a great way to kickstart the onboarding process.

Business In A Box Employee Handbook