Employee Policy Handbook - My husband and I started a small business two years ago. Since opening the doors, the business has really started to grow. We now have four employees and might possibly be needing more in the near future. Since we didn’t have any need for policies and procedures until hiring all of these new employees, there wasn’t much organization. We couldn’t enforce rules because we didn’t have an employee policy handbook that gave specific expectations.
After a few incidents have happened recently, I have decided to take it upon myself to create and distribute an employee policy handbook. The challenge was that I have never in my entire life created anything even remotely close to an employee policy handbook. I was clueless. So, I turned to the internet. I found lots and lots of sites that offered to create one for me or sell me some helpful software. Most of those sites catered to larger companies that had more than our small handful of employees. In fact, many of the sections that they were recommending didn’t even fit our business. We don’t offer benefits, so that eliminated a great amount of pages. Plus, why should I pay for something that I could create myself with a bit of guidance
Finally, after a few hours of research, I had managed to gather quite a bit of information about what should and shouldn’t go into an employee policy handbook. The most important topics to cover are the expectations. A dress code needed to be listed and enforced. Harassment needed to be mentioned and stated that any form of harassment would not be tolerated. Our employee policy handbook also needed to touch upon hours and pay. I definitely wanted a section on tardiness and consequences.
All of the information that I’d gathered continually mentioned that it is important to make it clear in the employee policy handbook about termination - how it could be arrived at and why. In my state of Pennsylvania, we have what is called "at will" employment. Basically, that says that an employer can terminate someone at anytime without reason or cause. That definitely needed to be mentioned in the employee policy handbook to avoid legal issues. Of course, we weren’t planning on firing employees just because we’re having a grouchy day, but should the need arise, at least it will be spelled out in an employee policy handbook.
If you’re looking to create a handbook, check online for some wonderful resources. If you are in need of a company that will create everything for you, you will definitely find someone. If you just want to get some basics and guidelines like I did, you’ll find all of that as well.
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