Why Your Office Needs Employee Manuals and Guidelines

When businesses hire their first employees, they often start without having thought through fully all of the implications of what they are doing. This new person is going to be representing you and your company to your customers and clients, will be in your office and will gain access to all of your knowledge and resources. Many people find that what starts out with great promise ends up in disaster when they haven't considered all of the implications or possibilities.

As soon as you hire your first employee you seriously need to consider having an employee manual. The contents only need to be basic to start off with, but the benefits of having one will add value to your business.

Here's a few reasons why you need a manual:

To start with there are the legal reasons. If you have an employee you have instantly inherited legal obligations that you must fulfill. With most of these legal obligations if something goes wrong the first thing the courts will ask you is "what was your written policy on this issue". You can never have enough documentation!

The sort of legal areas you need to have coverage include workplace health and safety, anti-discrimination, workplace harassment, sexual harassment, bullying, privacy as well as the financial side of things such as pays, personnel records, sick time, vacation time, and benefits.

Then there are the time management reasons - if you have to tell more than one person the same information you will save time by having the information written down and then just sharing the information.

Next there are the making life simpler reasons - if an employee has a question about an issue it is easier for them to quickly look at the manual rather than try and catch you to ask you the question. It makes life simpler and easier for all!

Finally there is the no surprises reason. Both you and the employee are totally clear on what will happen and when on an issue, and what process will be followed. This is particularly important for issues such as probation, performance and grievance processes. An employee policy manual leaves nothing to question.

What should an employee manual contain?

Your employee manual needs to cover off all of the common questions employees want to know about.

It needs to say "this is how we do things around here" and set a firm line in the sand that shows boundaries.

Here are a few sections that traditionally goes in employee manuals or employee handbooks include your:

• Position descriptions and job descriptions - what each role does.


• Hiring process - how you hire and reference check someone and the timeline in which this is completed.


• New employee orientation process - what process you will use to make sure new employees know what they are doing and the rules around their employment.


• Probation Periods- Rules around any probationary period and how you will assess whether someone is permanently appointed.


• Employee Hours - any rules you have about punctuality, public holidays, overtime, timesheets, friends and family visiting the workplace.

• Of course there are many more topics that need covered but you get the idea.
  

HOW TO GET THE WORD OUT

Having a great manual is only part of the issue - you need your team to know and understand where it is stored, how they can find it, what is in it and how they will learn of any changes.

This can be as simple as:

• Being a standard part of all new employees orientation process


• Include a briefing as part of all promotion to management role


• Having team meetings about the full manual at least once a year and specific bits such as workplace health and safety and harassment at least twice a year (with signed documentation from each employee in attendance)
  


• Having a form of communication to your team such as memos, daily communication books, newsletters where you let them know of updates/changes


• Getting different team members to talk about certain topics with you in your regular catch-ups with them

You also need to keep a note of what you do to keep people informed and updated - this again becomes an issue if you end up before the courts at any stage.

One way is to get people to sign an acknowledgment that they have seen and been trained in the manual for their personnel file. Remember, signed and dated documentation is a must!

If you have any questions, please feel free to visit my website at www.SuperiorAssisting.com to contact me.

We can work together to build the ideal Employee Manual to ensure the highest level of protection to you and your business.

Here's to a great day!